PROFILE: THE HOBBIT: It has been a perilous quest, beset by problems with cast, studio and location, but filming of the 'Lord of the Rings' prequel may finally begin - in 2011, writes HUGH LINEHAN
THERE’S NOTHING like a good treasure quest, particularly if it involves dwarves and trolls and goblins and dragons. Not to mention hobbits, the diminutive heroes of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, due to return in a two-part movie to a cineplex near you since, oh, 2006 or so.
Tolkien's first Middle Earth book – full title, nerds will quickly tell you, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again– has been in pre-production for several long years. Sets have been designed. Monsters have been digitally created. Hollywood studios have risen and crumbled. Directors have come. Directors have gone. And the movie still awaits a green light.
This week was another turbulent one for The Hobbit. "Government leads Hobbit rescue quest," proclaimed the Sydney Morning Herald, reporting that senior ministers in New Zealand had stepped in to try to prevent Sir Peter Jackson's megabudget adaptation – the two films will cost an estimated $150 million apiece – from departing the country for alternative locations in Australia, eastern Europe or even Ireland. (A spokeswoman for the Irish Film Board said on Thursday that "we are following a line of inquiry on the project".)
The production has become embroiled in an industrial-relations dispute with New Zealand’s actors’ union, which wants the right to collective bargaining on behalf of its members. Unions in other countries, including the powerful Screen Actors Guild in the US, have advised their own members not to deal with the film unless the dispute is resolved. Philippa Boyens, the co-producer of The Hobbit, said this week that the dispute had damaged New Zealand’s film reputation and “thrown doubt on how stable our industry is in terms of industrial relations”. Hanging tough, Boyens told Radio New Zealand: “That is what is being put in jeopardy – not whether the production goes forward but whether it’s made here.”
That's not The Hobbit's only problem. Yesterday MGM, one of the studios backing the project, began seeking creditors' approval on a bankruptcy plan that will see more than $4 billion of debt exchanged for equity in a new company with rights to the Hobbit adaptation as well as the James Bond franchise. MGM has been struggling since last year to recover from a string of flop movies, declining DVD sales and large debts. While reports suggest that yesterday's move "signals the end is near" in the process, clearing the way for production to begin on The Hobbit, a spokesman for Jackson's company Three Foot Seven Productions described the reports as speculation, and said the producers were "still waiting" for a decision. Right now the first of the two films is scheduled to begin production next year, for a December 2012 release, but in the absence of an official green light that's still aspirational.
The quest to make The Hobbithas already been long, arduous and beset by unexpected challenges. Jackson secured fame, fortune and a knighthood on the back of his triumphant version of Tolkien's "unfilmable" The Lord of the Rings, the most profitable trilogy of all time, which took more than $3 billion (€2.15 billion) at the box office, along with a record-breaking hoard of Oscars. Not only that, he delivered the enormous, highly technical production from his native New Zealand, generating thousands of jobs and dramatically boosting New Zealand's film industry. He didn't just use New Zealand's impressive locations; he also used local talent to generate the film's impressive special effects – in the process making the Wellington-based company Weta Digital one of the world's best-known effects companies.
Given the success of The Lord of the Rings, it was hardly surprising that The Hobbitshould become a valuable property. It was even less surprising that the rights to Tolkien's creation would become the subject of bitter legal disputes, and that there should have been warring over the division of spoils from The Lord of the Rings' profits between the studio that produced it (the now-defunct New Line), the Tolkien estate, Jackson's company and a host of other litigants.
All of which seems rather a long way from Bilbo Baggins, the titular three-and-a-half-foot hero of The Hobbit, who lives a comfortable life in Bag End, a well-upholstered hole in the ground. In the book, the wizard Gandalf persuades Bilbo to go on an adventure with a band of dwarves in search of treasure. Along the way he nearly gets turned to stone by trolls, is captured by goblins, becomes embroiled in a great battle and comes face to face with a terrifying dragon. As a parable for the moviemaking process, it's not bad.
In modern parlance, the Hobbitmovies will form a prequel to The Lord of the Rings, set recognisably in the same fantasy world of Middle Earth and featuring several of the same characters – Bilbo, Gandalf and Gollum among them. Written by Tolkien in the late 1920s, the book was first published almost 10 years later and became a children's bestseller in the years before the second World War. It was because of this success that Tolkien was asked to write another book, which became the three-part The Lord of the Rings. Although set in the same world, the two books are quite different in style, tone and language. The Hobbitis a charming book for children; The Lord of the Ringsis a much darker, sprawling epic drawing on Tolkien's deep knowledge of Anglo-Saxon, Nordic and Celtic literature and folklore. Since its publication in the 1950s, The Lord of the Ringshas become, in turn, a favourite read for the flower children of the 1960s and a subject of obsession for countless whey-faced adolescents who don't get out enough. (Full disclosure: this writer was one.) As those adolescents grew up, many of them retained a deep affection for Tolkien's world. One such was Peter Jackson.
With Jackson making it clear from the outset that he was willing to produce but not direct The Hobbit, the choice of the highly individual and imaginative Mexican director Guillermo del Toro ( Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy) seemed inspired. But, following delay after delay, del Toro parted company with the production this summer: "After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien's Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures," he said at the end of May. "The mounting pressures of conflicting schedules have overwhelmed the time slot originally allocated for the project. Both as a co-writer and as a director, I wish the production nothing but the very best of luck and I will be first in line to see the finished product."
Key cast members have also dropped away. The British actor Martin Freeman (best known for The Office) has said he won't be playing Bilbo after all, because of other commitments. The presumption has always been that other stars, such as Ian McKellen (Gandalf) and Andy Serkis (Gollum), would reprise their roles from The Lord of the Rings, but they have not been officially confirmed.
Del Toro left The Hobbitfour months ago. The general impression is that Jackson will soon announce his intention to step into his shoes (or, perhaps more accurately, his hairy feet). But our trusty hero still has to slay the unions, reawaken the slumbering giant in the Hollywood Hills and possibly embark on a long, long journey to a faraway land of which he knows little – Slovakia perhaps? – before the quest can be completed, the victory won and the treasure secured. For the time being, therefore, Bilbo isn't going anywhere.
CV: The Hobbit
Who is he?Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, of Bag End, The Shire, Middle Earth, and hero of JRR Tolkien's titular book.
Why is he in the news?Two megabudget Hobbit films have been in pre-production for years but are still plagued by union problems, cast defections and money issues, not to mention questions about who will direct them.
Most appealing characteristicA sunny and adventurous outlook on life. (Comes from the Took side of his family.)
Least appealing characteristicA fondness for hey-nonny-ney faux-English folk songs.
Most likely to say"The Road goes ever on and on. Down from the door where it began."
Least likely to say"I don't get out of bed for less than $10 million."
