The world fell in love with Peter Jackson‘s trip through J.R.R. Tolkien‘s universe with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and now the wait is nearly over for The Hobbit!
Announcing that he’s nearly finished the two-part epic prequel, Peter brought 12 and a half minutes of Hobbit goodness to Comic-Con over the weekend, and according to reports, the footage that was shown was extremely well received!
Wild applause broke out as soon as the lights dimmed and a behind-the-scenes production diary was screened to the packed-to-the-rafters Hall H. The clip featured glimpses of Beorn’s house, Stephen Fry as the master of Lake Town, Smaug’s gold, footage of the Dwarfs, Orlando Bloom‘s Legolas, Luke Evans‘ Bard and helt-felt messages from the cast and crew.
Jackson, who was joined by Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Andy Serkis and Elijah Wood, caused a frenzy at the film’s panel, with the 16,500 in attendance jumping to their feet the second they all stepped on stage. “This is a movie made by fans for fans,” the New Zealand director announced, referring to his love of Tolkien’s franchise.
Shortly after, fans were treated to the 12-minute showreel of finished Hobbit footage, and with all the buzz surrounding it, it’s safe to say fans won’t be disappointed. Freeman does Bilbo justice, as he’s shown in the video and action scenes are said to be more exciting than the previous LOTR films. There was even a shot of Lost‘s Evangeline Lily, who plays a newly created elf named Tauriel.
Talking about the movie, Jackson revealed that he’s considering splitting part 2, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, into two films, if the production company will let him.
“We’ve been certainly talking to the studio about some of the material we can’t film,” Peter said. “And we’ve been asking them if we can do a bit more filming next year. Which I don’t know what would come of that, whether that would be extended additions or not. But those discussions are ongoing…I’d like to shoot a bunch more material that we can’t shoot. There’s so much good stuff in the appendices that we haven’t been able to squeeze into these movies. That’s a discussion that we’re having, yeah.”
Whether or not Jackson gets his way, we all can’t wait to see first installment of Bilbo Baggins’ journey when The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits theatres on December 14.
