Jackson, Del Toro Change Hobbit Plans

The Hobbit Executive Producer Peter Jackson and Director Guillermo Del Toro have told Empire Online that they finalized their plans for the two Lord of the Rings prequel films. The preliminary plan was to release The Hobbit in December 2011 and a bridge movie between it and The Lord of the Rings trilogy in 2012. That has now changed.

“We’ve decided to have The Hobbit span the two movies, including the White Council and the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur,” says Del Toro.

“We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie,” adds Jackson. “The essential brief was to do The Hobbit, and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more style, if you like, of the [LOTR] trilogy.”

So there you go. The second film will not, as had previously been suggested, a film that will bridge the 60-year gap between The Hobbit and the start of Fellowship Of The Ring.

What this means for previous Lord of the Rings actor reprising their roles is unknown but I am thinking most will not be returning. At this point it seems Andy Serkis (Gollum) and Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) are the only core actors needed for this new plan. I wonder how much finances played a part in the decision as the cast being left out would have likely asked for a hefty sum of money to reprise their various roles.

Lord of the Rings Blu-Ray Coming

Believe it or not, still here. Just not much going on yet in the movie news front. They are probably still in the scripting and pre-production planning phase were keeping things from leaking is easy because the circle of participants is still small.

Amazon.com has posted the first image of a planned Blu-ray release for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It appears the suggested retail price is $100 but currently the "sale" price is $70. There is no release date and no details on what extra features the set may have.

Viggo Mortensen Retiring?

Sadly it has been slow on the news front for Hobbit information. This is to be expected since the production is still in the scripting and keeping stage. In the meantime, how about news that Viggo Mortensen may retire from acting, at least according to Times Online.

“In the past week I’ve been from LA to Japan to Korea to Poland to here,” he hisses, describing in near disbelief the travel itinerary for his current promotional tour. “It’s ridiculous! It’s not a healthy way to be. But, as it happens, I’m taking measures to change that.” Which are? “No more movies. I haven’t said yes to one in over a year. I’ve been in all these well-received movies and it seems like I should be doing some more, but there’s other things I want to do. It’s not the right time.”

But when will you come back to film-making? When will you know it’s the right time? Long, long, pause. A sigh. “I really don’t know.”

“Everywhere I’ve seen this movie [Good] play, it ends, the lights go on, and people are completely unsure,” he says, beaming with pride. “They don’t know what to think. And I’m like: ‘That’s OK. This movie doesn’t give you that tragic finale so common in the Holocaust genre. That’s because it’s as much about us, the viewers, as it is about Germany or the Germans.’ ”

He adds that he could have gone the clean-cut billion-dollar blockbuster route. “I was offered some of them after Lord of the Rings,” he says. But they were often “complete crap, all about product placement and marketing”. Yes, but what about the juicy cheques? “I don’t need the money,” he says, slipping once again into swansong mode. “I only want enough money to live and to travel, to send my kid to school [his 20-year-old son Henry is at Columbia University in New York] and to contribute to society.”

Above are just snippets but the full interview is here. Viggo has indicated in the past he is willing to return to Middle Earth but as he pointed out, thanks to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, he is financially secure and doesn't have to work unless he wants too. Assuming Aragorn is written into the Hobbit or Rings Prequel, I am betting the issue will simply come down to money as it often does in Hollywood.