THE HOBBIT MOVIE

For those who don’t know, the eagerly awaited “Hobbit” movie has hit a snag. Well, several snags truth to tell. Firstly, and most dangerously perhaps, MGM have still not given a green light for filming to start. Er, which is hardly surprising because they’re 4 billio (yes, billion) dollars in debt, and have been trying to find a buyer for the past six months or more. And haven’t. Well, would you want to buy a company that’s already dug itself a hole that deep?

So, they’re now considering breaking up their assets (principally the Tolkien franchise, the James Bond franchise, and their back-catalogue of over 4,000 movies) and selling the pieces individually to the highest bidder. This may not be a problem if the Hobbit project finds a sympathetic buyer, but if it’s a company that’s more interested in cash than artistic integrity the movie could be in for a rough ride. If it gets made at all.

And there’s also the issue of who will produce it, because, sick of all the delays, Guillermo del Toro has jumped ship and will no longer be involved with the project. That doesn’t worry me too much – I was never enamoured of the notion of him producing the film(s) in the first place, but as they always say, better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know. But finding a suitable producer could prove quite a challenge if Jackson himself can’t/won’t find the time.

So, it will be interesting to see how things pan out from here on in. But whatever happens, we’re all going to be quite a few years older before “the Hobbit” ever hits a cinema screen.

Yet another rumour, I suspect, but it would be nice if it did mean something is afoot. On the other hand, I doubt that scenery will be rushing anywhere until a director has been appointed… Nor am I sure what the Weta Cave (the studio shop, which is absolutely tiny) has got to do with anything in terms of filming. Maybe they’re just stocktaking! But we shall see.

I see that the Hobbit movies (yes, movies) have finally, officially, got the green light, that Peter Jackson is to be Director, and that the role of Bilbo has been cast to one Martin Freeman – not an especially well known actor, though I do vaguely recognise his face; most importantly, he does have an eerie likeness to a younger version of Ian Holm!

That would be interesting…

Yes, the unions are kicking up a fuss. It seems as if it’s justified too. If a settlement can’t be reached there’s been talk of filming in the Balkans instead. Perhaps some of my patrons in the Pony could get bit parts!

“Soon” seems unlikely. There was always talk of it being about three years between the start of filming and the movie arriving in our cinemas, and filming isn’t planned to start until next February. Since the “tradition” is for Tolkien films to open in December, I’d guess that will mean they’ll aim at release in December 2013.

And there remain many opportunities for slips between cup and lips…