Jackson’s Big Decision : A Hobbit Trilogy?

Shortly after Peter Jackson graced the world with yet another “behind the scenes” look at The Hobbit, with the newest production video, news has been buzzing about the possibility of turning the originally planned decision to make the Hobbit into a two movie feature into a trilogy.

The final decision is far from being made, but we wanted to give an update of where it stands and get some feedback from fans.

Warner Brothers cherishes the Tolkien franchise and should, as The Lord of the Rings movies has brought in more than $3 billion for them.  As such, they are very compelled to squeeze as much juice out The Hobbit as possible.  Peter Jackson is on board and justifies the move by saying there is plenty of content that can be used from Lord of the Rings appendixes and possibly The Silmarillion for the third movie.  Plus, lets be honest, in all of Peter Jackson’s movies, we are usually pushing close to three hours, so I’m sure enough content is not the problem.

Where problems do rise is getting the approval for such a move.  There are many different people that need to agree to such a move to make it happen.  First off, the Tolkien estate owners, which include multiple parties.  The reason why making these movies in the first place took so long, was getting agreement from the multiple parties.  The easy remedy for theses groups is to see the extra $$$ that is generated from the third movie.

Additionally, new contracts with actors and production need to be generated for a third movie.  Even if enough footage is available to split into a trilogy, the staff was originally contracted for a two movie release, and thus compensated under that agreement.  With the addition of a third movie, these must all be renegotiated.  Talks have been ongoing already with main actors such as Ian Mckellen and Martin Freeman.

Lastly, MGM remains a 50% shareholder in the movies along with Warner Brothers, so the other studio needs to sign off as well.

Above are only the “logistical” risks of adding a third movie.  Then there are the backlash risks.  Is a third movie really needed?  Will it turn 2 really good movies into three

OK, drawn out movies.  Are Hobbit producers letting money blur their vision?  These are fair questions.  This would be a first time that a trilogy was made, solely based on one book.

At this point, nobody can answer these questions, we can only speculate.  What is comforting to know, is that Peter Jackson is steering the ship.  Although there are doubts that exist with the possibility of another movie, we trust that Peter keeps Hobbit fan’s interests front of mind and rationally makes these decisions in what is best for the franchise, not just for making money.  We want to hear your thoughts.  We will keep you posted.