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The Hobbit (2014) - Resource and idea thread
The Hobbit (2014) - Resource and idea thread
Darth Lars
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Padawan LearnerMany fans of J.R.R. Tolkien were disappointed when Peter Jackson announced that his adaptation of the single book "The Hobbit" was going to be released as three movies, with the story stretched out into all three movies and with a lot of cruft inserted into them that is not part of Tolkien's book. The first movie will be released in December 2012, but the third movie is not scheduled for release until mid-2014.
I believe that there is a strong desire among fans to have an edit Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy that is condensed as one movie, as well as there being a desire among fan-editors to make separate edits of each movie. The purpose of this thread is both to collect ideas and to list resources that could be used for such fan-edits. I have not done any fan-edit but I would like to help how I can, and also to speed things along so that I can see them sooner...
Although there can not be a fan-edit of the complete story until after a Blu-Ray release of the 2014 movie, I think that the community is able to collect ideas from the original book and resources that consist of other adaptations that have already been made. For instance, the text in the book is sometimes in verse and in a narrative style, and some think that the movie(s) should have a narrator. It also contains several songs, that we yet do not know whether they will be in Peter Jackson's movie or not, and most of them will probably be sung with different music.
Films:
The Hobbit (1977)
Narrator at the beginning.
Soundtrack reckord
Songs: Blunt the knives. Misty Mountains (Thorin + dwarves)
Movie Soundtrack:
The Hobbit (1977)
Several songs, both original and new for the movie.
The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (2012)
Songs: Blunt the Knives, Misty Mountains Cold (Thorin + dwarves)
Audio books:
One type of resources are all the audio books/radio dramatizations that exist.
each has a narrative voice that could be used.
The radio books are quite easy to find on the net, if you know what to look for. Samples can be heard on the web without having to download.
BBC Radio Drama (1968)
Full cast.
Duration 3h, 25min.
Audio book, Harper Collins
Narrator: Rob Inglis
Duration: 11 hours (Unabridged version)
Audio Book, Argo, (1974)
Narrator: Nicol Williamsson
Duration 3h, 42min (Abridged version)
feedmyleg
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Padawan LearnerI'm going to voice the obvious and most viable suggestion here and say that I'd love to see a version that just excises the elements not in The Hobbit book, creating a more standalone story that doesn't follow Gandalf when he peaces out of Bilbo's adventure, that doesn't include the expected elf/dwarf love story, and that doesn't get into the Five Armies' politics in the way that the book didn't.
That being said, I'm actually a fan of the expanded version of the films that ties into LoTR more, since Jackson had wanted to revisit The Hobbit again and update it to the tone of his later books but was convinced otherwise by his peers.
Molly
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U u uwa uwa...Do you mean Jackson or Tolkien?
"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)
feedmyleg
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Padawan LearnerOops, "since Tolkien had wanted to revisit The Hobbit." My bad!
strangeland
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How about putting the 'Erebor' prologue later, giving Throin a badass mystique until his backstory is revealed by Balin.
Or whichever dwarf was the oldest, names escape me right now. The VO does sound like Ian holm, but maybe there's a way. Also, am I the only font nazi who hated the subtitle font? Too large and rounded... Also unneeded whenever the orcs spoke.
Maybe there will be a version clean of hard coded subs
Darth Lars
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Padawan LearnerI agree on the prologue. There was too much before we saw the young(er) Bilbo.
I would also cut the ridiculous Goblin chase, from the arrival of Gandalf to Bilbo seeing them flee.
I saw the movie with Swedish subtitles and original sound. There were no additional rounded English subtitles for elvish or orchish dialogue, but there were signs when there were cuts between time periods. Language subtitles on DVD and BluRay are usually on a separate track, so I don't think that they will be "burned in".
guiser
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Was anyone else thinking of changes they would like to see while watching the movie for the first time? Sites like these... :p
timdiggerm
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Absolutely was. Mostly thought about how we probably wouldn't've had to deal with the Azog crap if it was two films.
feedmyleg
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Padawan LearnerFor some reason, I kept a careful eye to to see what were easy cuts and what weren't while I was watching. Strangely enough, I believe that the entire Azog plotline can be cut outside of the "15 birds" section, and even then they looked like they could just be the toughest of the Goblins rather than the audience going "who are these guys?". I also think, in order for it to feel more like Bilbo's story, the entire Goblin City section could be cut except for the Gollum bits. And to keep the story from feeling bloated, I also think that the entire prologue can go, all of Radaghast, the stone giants, etc. Not that some of these aren't great moments, but during the film they just felt like unnecessary roadblocks just to fulfill a certain number of action beats.
And these could all go without any significant. For instance, with the stone giants, Bilbo almost slips off the cliff right before the giants come out. Right after, he almost slips off the cliff again. I think that could easily be combined into one moment without much editing magic. It would make for a very short film on its own, but I think as soon as the other films come out there can really be a nice trim version that cuts out most of my personal complaints.
Darth Lars
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Padawan Learnerstrangeland said:
How about putting the 'Erebor' prologue later, giving Throin a badass mystique until his backstory is revealed by Balin.
If any of the Erebor scenes are retained, I think that Thorin's should be cut from them. The fall of Erebor was supposed to have been a long time ago, but Thorin does not appear to have aged a day since then when he meets Bilbo.
He and a couple other dwarves look too human but Thorin can not be easily replaced or ignored. His appearance could only be explained (retconned) as being because he is a young dwarf.
The Hobbit (2014) - Resource and idea thread