the hobbit Tagged Articles at Cinematical

MGM Studios' financial troubles will soon be coming to a sad end. Back in September, it was reported that MGM was in such poor shape that they might be forced to auction off their assets, including James Bond and The Hobbit. That day has come to pass. Variety reports that MGM Studios is officially on the auction block.

MGM has been given a month of breathing space from their interest payments, time they plan on using to begin "a process to explore various strategic alternatives including operating as a standalone entity, forming strategic partnerships and evaluating a potential sale of the company."

But all hopes of survival may rest on what they sell off from their glorious history, including a library of 4,000 titles, the logo, the United Artists company, James Bond, and half ownership in The Hobbit. Time Warner, News Corp, and Lionsgate are said to be interested in all of the above.

As their library scatters to the four winds, it'll be really interesting to see what remakes and reboots it spawns. Remember, Robocop was on the MGM remake slate, and surely some hungry studio will snap that up. The Cannon Films and ITV Global Entertainment collections are just ripe for harvesting. Perhaps you'll finally see a Lifeforce movie, or a remake of Capricorn One, or an aspiring Tarantino type will buy up all those American International Picture rights and revive motorcycle gang movies. Sure, we all want to know who will wind up with James Bond, but it'll be far more fascinating if someone tries to remake Psych-Out. *


*It's possible this is considered one of AIP's "early" films, though it's unclear where that cut off date is.

MGM has been plagued by financial woes for much of their long and illustrious career, but their most recent crisis could end up costing them two of their biggest titles. Nikke Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily is breathlessly reporting that the studio is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy with over $3.5 billion in debt. MGM held a very long conference call with their creditors, pleading with themto waive their interest payments until February 2010, and allow them the cash they need for the rest of the year, particularly to fund its upcoming slate of films. Naturally, some of those are highly anticipated, such as Robocop, The Hobbit, and the latest James Bond installment.

However, MGM's creditors aren't feeling particularly charitable, and may force the studio to file for bankruptcy. If that happens, they could lose James Bond, The Hobbit, and numerous other franchises as MGM would have to sell them to the highest bidder. Right now, they're trying to convince their Scrooges that bankruptcy is the worst possible option, and that Bond and Bilbo are big enough moneymakers to cover their debt. That's where the situation stands now, and it'll certainly be quite the economic spectacle to watch.

I find the news particularly interesting in light of Peter Jackson's remarks on The Hobbit at ComicCon, when he squashed rumors that the film was in the casting stages, and noted that it hadn't even really been green-lit or had its budget approved yet. It was a douse of cold water after a lot of breathless excitement, much of which seemed to come straight from the filmmakers themselves. Could the brakes have been put on because of MGM's financial woes? Possibly.

Continued below the jump

There's a huge rumor making the rounds today (courtesy of Marketsaw) that Peter Jackson now wants to direct a third bridge film connecting The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings, and that he wants all three films (including Guillermo del Toro's two Hobbit movies) to be shot in 3D. Those of you following the progress of these films should remember that way back when The Hobbit was first announced, both Jackson and del Toro were keen on doing three movies total, with two based on The Hobbit and one based on other related material like appendices that Jackson had gotten a hold of.

A bit later on both men squashed the idea of a third film because, according to Jackson -- who spoke to MTV about a potential third film as recently as this month -- Warner Bros. and New Line only have the rights to make two films. However, it felt like Jackson wanted to make a third film if it was at all possible, so perhaps they've found a way to make that happen and we just haven't been told yet? Personally, though, I'm more interested in the 3D angle on all this because, well, I don't think they should be filmed in 3D. Not only would it be a bit rough to sit through a three-hour 3D movie (oh c'mon, you know those suckers are gonna be way long), but I just don't think 3D would add a whole lot to the finished product. Would Middle Earth look cool in a couple shots? Sure. Other than that ... eh?

I'll give you Avatar -- that's a film that belongs in 3D. And I can even see the potential in something gimmicky like Final Destination 3D. But The Hobbit? Really? Does every big upcoming film need to be in 3D now? Is that where we're at?

What do you think about The Hobbit in 3D?

After a preview screening of District 9 -- by the way, make plans to go see that, right now. Seriously, stop what you're doing and clear your calendar on August 14 when the film opens -- we spent a couple of hours sitting down with Peter Jackson to talk about District 9, Halo The Hobbit, The Lovely Bones, and pretty much everything else he's working on. Plus, you won't believe what he does in his spare time. Suffice it to say, he's not cruising a luxury yacht around the world and eating caviar all day.

Read on beyond the jump for the full writeup of the event (which we were sadly not allowed to videotape), and to get all the goods. He also showed us four and a half minutes of footage from The Lovely Bones, which looks incredible. The trailer for that will be on iTunes on August 6th, and then will be playing in theaters in front of Julie & Julia. Jump through for all things Peter Jackson, including an update on all of his projects, and a rundown of his hobbies.

While speaking to fans during Comic Con, Peter Jackson revealed that The Hobbit is much farther away than fans have been led to believe: "Everyone assumes we're casting but we're not," he said. Recently rumors suggested that Jackson (who's producing this time around while Guillermo del Toro directs) would use this time at Con to announce who would play Bilbo Baggins in the much-anticipated double-feature prequel, though not only did he not reveal any names -- he claimed they're not even close to choosing one.

Jackson said that they're three or four weeks away from handing in the first draft of the script, and that the film isn't even really greenlit yet -- they still need to finish writing, get approval on the script, and have the budget approved before we will see any actual progress in the way of casting. While there is no doubt that the film will get made, it's still in that squishy working stage, and we shouldn't be scanning the trades for a Bilbo Baggins casting announcement for a few more months.

Hopefully, though, things will remain on target so that we'll all be able to watch the first Hobbit film when it hits theaters in December of 2011. We'll have more from Peter Jackson in a little while as Cinematical was one of a handful of sites who got to sit down for an intimate chat with the filmmaker. Stay tuned ...

Erik Davis contributed to this post

Hey, LOTR fans! Even though The Hobbit isn't due until 2011, the crew in New Zealand has already started digging some holes for the hobbitses. TheOneRing, your source for all things hairy-toed, has some very cool pictures of the rebuilding of Hobbiton. So far we're only seeing roads, foliage, and the aforementioned hobbit holes, but it's whetting the proverbial whistle for what will hopefully be more Hobbit news out of the San Diego Comic-Con, which starts later this week. Producer Peter Jackson will be there to talk up the deliciously apocalyptic District 9, but rumors abound that there will be Hobbit-y deets leaking out from those insanely packed halls.

So far Jackson's denied he will be announcing who will play Bilbo at SDCC. He told Empire, "We're starting to think about casting, but we're knee-deep in the script right now. And when we do go to actors, they're probably going to ask to see a script, so we're powering ahead with getting the first draft done." It's not like both he and Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro aren't already working on enough different projects to make my head spin, but a fanboy or girl can hope, right? Right now, the odds-on favorites are Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, Hot Scot™ James McAvoy, and David "Ten Inch" Tennant from Dr. Who. In turn, there are rumors that a Dr. Who movie will be announced at Comic-Con.

Stay tuned to Cinematical for the latest from Comc-Con! The crew there will be Tweeting it up from the convention floor.

Now that we've launched these two new genre sites -- Horror Squad and ScFi Squad -- there's going to be a good amount of content over there that's not over here. Like this post from SciFi Squad about Guillermo Del Toro, who just updated (and cast) a couple of his new projects.

Don't ask me how Guillermo del Toro works on four hundred projects at once, because it always amazes me to see how much he's got going on, and it's also inspiring to see a filmmaker that passionate about creating and conceptualizing and coming up with awesome new things for the world and his fans. Guillermo del Toro is exactly the kind of guy we want handling some of these more fanboy-ish properties because he's a true geek -- and while other filmmakers are using their celebrity status to attend parties at the Playboy mansion, this mofo is designing creatures and drawing in his sketchbook and working hard to please us.

Round of applause before we move on ...

In a new interview on BBC Radio, Del Toro let loose that he's already cast friend (and collaborator) Doug Jones as Frankenstein in his planned adaptation of the classic tale, and will begin testing things like make-up within the next few weeks -- though he admits (to Digital Spy) that he's "not in a hurry" and is perfectly fine shooting the film five or six years from now. "You have one shot in your lifetime at these things and I don't want to do it the wrong way." Next up: Del Toro reveals who he's already cast in The Hobbit.

Read the rest at SciFi Squad

Sure, all the early news and rumors about The Hobbit are fun to read, but we have to wait more than three years to see what Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro have cooked up. Three years is an eternity -- the world could end before The Hobbit (part one of two) arrives on the big screen in 2012! What's a Tolkien movie fan to do?

Hundreds of Hobbit-hungry volunteers in the UK came together to make The Hunt for Gollum, a 40-minute film based on the appendices of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, according to The Guardian. Reportedly, the short "shows Aragorn's quest to find Gollum, the tortured creature who seeks the ring for himself. And faithful to Peter Jackson's trilogy, the lead bears an uncanny likeness to Viggo Mortensen." Chris Bouchard directed the film, composed the music, and served as executive producer. He told The Guardian: "It was really motivated by a love of the material. We couldn't wait for The Hobbit and wanted to try to add to the saga. We shot every weekend for a year and really tried to mimic the professional film process as much as possible on our shoestring budget."

Their budget was £3,000, which converts to about $4,500, which is rather incredible. The film debuted last night at the London International Festival of Science Fiction, a pretty cool event itself. I watched the first trailer for The Hunt for Gollum -- and it's pretty freakin' impressive. Head to the official site to watch one of the teasers or the trailers (or watch one trailer below) -- the entire movie is also supposed to be available online, though technical troubles kept me from connecting.

Guillermo del Toro's prodigious creative output makes me hang my head in shame. He's not content to just direct, write, and produce internationally acclaimed movies; he's not satisfied torturing Ron Perlman and Doug Jones with freakish makeup or giving grown adults the sobbing heebie-jeebies. No, while you've been sitting on your couch, drinking beer and playing Guitar Hero, he's splicing and dicing The Hobbit and getting ready for the first part of his vampire trilogy to hit bookshelves. Yes, bookshelves.

Del Toro and Chuck Hogan have written The Strain Trilogy, the first volume of which will be available June 2nd. William Morrow has put up a really neat video interview with del Toro about his interest in "the otherness, the scary void of an animated corpse that lusts after your blood." (He also takes a nice dig at the sexy sparkly vamps of Twilight.) Expect gory deets on "how each of the feedings of these vampires is acutely detailed and painful to read, so you will experience this sense of dread and horror..." His vamps will be "as menacing, and as real, and as absolutely disgusting and alien as possible."

"I hope you enjoy the book!" he signs off cheerily.

Del Toro is such a character that I love reading or seeing any interviews with him. I really have to commend William Morrow on doing a video interview with him to promote the book; it's a cheap, easy way to drum up buzz and it speaks really well to the target audience of The Strain. Horror fans are tuned in to the Internet as much as sci-fi or comic book fans are, and although his pre-existing fan base would seek out The Strain anyway, other publishers should follow WM's lead for innovative online marketing. There are plenty of other great books out there that are falling between the cracks.

We've all known for a while now that Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson's teams of merry filmmakers were planning to make TWO movies out of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit, but now we have confirmation of the plan by the filmmakers themselves, and they doled out a few small details to Empire Magazine in honor of the publication's 20th birthday. And those quotes go a little like this:

Del Toro: "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."

Jackson: "We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie. 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."

As Empire's Chris Hewitt observes, this should put to bed those theories that one film would focus on The Hobbit and the second would be some sort of bridging appendices miscellaneous whatnot. Expect a lot more on The Hobbit over the next three years, including every nerdly little tidbit we can get our pipeweed-lovin' hands on.

And hey, Happy Birthday Empire!