the hobbit

Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro have decided to write the screenplay for The Hobbit with Fran Walsh (not frank as the article names her) and Philippa Boyens, who adapted LOTRs with Peter Jackson. Yay! This is very good news.

I really really really hope that they don't make as many changes to The Hobbit as they made to LOTRs. I love the movies, but I still can't help but watch them thinking "Why did they change that???" so many of the changes they made were unnecessary and completely opposite of what happened in the book. I understand making changes to make the story fit into a movie time-limit, but come on. Frodo did not need to send Sam away in ROTK. There was no need for them to go to Osgilith with Faramir. Faking Aragorn's death in Two Towers was just silly. I understand they needed a way to let Theoden know that the Uruk-hai army was coming to attack Helm's Deep, but a scout could have given them that news. Tolkien was a very deliberate writer, his Frodo would never have sent Sam away. His Faramir would not have been so easily swayed by his father's wishes to bring the ring back to Minas Tirith. Aragorn, while mortal, would not so easily be killed by a stupid orc on a warg.

ok, enough nerding out for today.

this is so cool!

Yay! Ian McKellen is going to play Gandalf in The Hobbit and the other unnamed project they're working on. I can't imagine anyone else playing Gandalf.

According to studio New Line, the first film will be an adaptation of The Hobbit and the second will be an original story focusing on the 60 years between the book and the beginning of the Rings trilogy.

"As to how it's going to work over two films and what going to happen on screen, well Guillermo has not got down to working out the major details yet - I can tell you it's going to be amazing though," Sir Ian said.

Tolkien never published anything based on the time between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, this could either turn out very cool or turn off the die-hards. I hope they involve Tolkien's family in the script, J.R.R.'s son Christopher is still alive and was very involved in his father's work, I hope they use him as a resource.

I was really hoping the second movie was going to be based on The Silmarillion, which is a prequel of sorts, to put it mildly, of The Hobbit and LOTRs, but to make the whole book into one movie would be a tall order...

IGN.com has come up with some ideas, here are a few:

Sauron Returns to Mordor
First off, the big villain from LOTR. He never actually shows up in the flesh in The Hobbit - he's merely mentioned as 'the Necromancer' – but he's certainly busy behind-the-scenes. The dark lord begins The Hobbit in hiding in his fortress of Dul Guldur, in Mirkwood Forrest, building up his strength and already searching for The One Ring.
Gandalf and the White Council eventually decide to attack the 'stronghold of evil', and the wily wizard ensures that the siege coincides with the mission to kill Smaug (the main story of The Hobbit), to stop Sauron and the dragon teaming up. He is driven from Dol Guldur and returns to Mordor to begin preparing for war. The Hobbit filmmakers could also show the villain beginning to corrupt white wizard Saruman, which lead to the dissolution of the White Council (an alliance of various wizards, including Gandalf, Galadriel and Saruman and IGN UK fave Radagast the Brown).

Aragorn Back-story
A Hobbit/LOTR bridge-film would also give the filmmakers the chance to tell Aragorn's extensive back-story. Around 50 years before the war of the ring began, he was told about his heritage (next in line to the throne of Gondor), and the be-stubbled hero began to rove middle-earth. It was at this time he served in the armies of both Rohan and Gondor, fighting several battles and generally acting as a kind of warrior trouble-shooter for the increasingly embattled kingdoms of men, as Sauron's armies grew.
During this period he also fell in love with Arwen and met Gandalf for the first time, where together they guarded The Shire, suspecting the One Ring may be there. All-in-all, Viggo Mortensen – who has expressed a desire to reprise his role as the character – would have plenty to do.

Incidentally, I kinda predicted this back in December:

New Line and Peter Jackson settled their lawsuit and have agreed to make The Hobbit and an apparent sequal. Im guessing they're going to split The Hobbit into two movies... I suppose they could make a movie about Gandalf and co. chasing out the Necromancer, aka Sauron, from Mirkwood which happens during the timeline of The Hobbit, but Tolkien didn't really give that much back-story. I'd much rather see something taken out of the Silmarillion :) More about Feanor and the rings would be cool. The return of the elves from Valinor, etc..

a non-political post, wow!

The new X-Files movie is scheduled to be released July 25th! Just three days before my birthday :) i knew this would be a golden year...

yay!

New Line and Peter Jackson settled their lawsuit and have agreed to make The Hobbit and an apparent sequal. Im guessing they're going to split The Hobbit into two movies... I suppose they could make a movie about Gandalf and co. chasing out the Necromancer, aka Sauron, from Mirkwood which happens during the timeline of The Hobbit, but Tolkien didn't really give that much back-story. I'd much rather see something taken out of the Silmarillion :) More about Feanor and the rings would be cool. The return of the elves from Valinor, etc..

Happy Halloween :)

My coworkers and I dressed up as members of the Geek Squad (not too far off...)

photoshoppin

i love photoshop, i do, i use it all the time. maybe im a photoshop addict. using it is just part of my job. anyway.. check out some amazing photoshop retouches of celebrities, iwanexstudio.com. what a difference in the before and afters. some looked better before me thinks.

yet more potter

if you don't want to spoil the ending of Deathly Hallows, don't click on the link below.

I mentioned that I was a little disappointed by the way that Deathly Hallows ended so abruptly. JK Rowling did a 90 minute web chat with fans and goes a little more in-depth into the future of the characters following the end of the story. It helps a little... better than the epilogue she included in the book.

Update: another link with more info on the fate of the characters.

harry potter dead or alive.

i finished the final harry potter book around 2am this morning. i always thought the movies were cute, but after the 4th movie, the goblet of fire, my interest in the series was piqued enough that I decided to start reading them. I would not consider myself a potter-devotee, I've only read the final 3 books, but they were a lot of fun. The last book especially, I was so involved in the story and stressed out. I wish the book hadn't ended as abruptly as it did, the majority of the book was full of so much traveling, for it to end the way that it did was just a tiny bit unsatisfying. But I will say no more, no spoiling here. I like endings, like the end of Return of the King, scouring of the shire and all. I think, after being with the characters for so long, I want to stay with them for a little while longer after the final climactic scene and see where they end up. All in all though, the book was very enjoyable and the ending of the series very bittersweet.

oh me.

yet another thing for me to nerd out on. theres been rumors for years, hopefully this means its actually going to happen...

parry hotter

4 days 14 hours and 34 minutes until deathly hallows. i will be annoying about it this week.

botd #2

I have won BOTD for a second time woo! If only I could use my special BOTD powers for good... let's hope this win isn't as controversial as the last one.. just have to get those vulcans on my side.

google

I realized earlier that I use google a lot, but not as a search engine. It is my spell-checker. I have google set as the default search engine in my browser search toolbar, and anytime i'm not sure about the spelling of a word I type it into the toolbar and google tells me the correct spelling. thanks google!

seti@home

I was picked yesterday for Seti@home's user of the day, and judging by my web logs quite a few people checked Seti@home's website. I was going to post something about it yesterday, but given that I was already bestowed the honor of Seti@home Babe of the Day I didn't want to brag about my latest Seti@home accolade. Now if only my computer would find the alien signal and I could get that recognition... Thank you Seti@home (and i'm assuming its random user of the day generator) for the recognition.

children of hurin

I finished Children of Hurin last week (im sort of a slow reader) and thoroughly enjoyed it. Although I already knew how it would end b/c there's a shorter version of the story in The Silmarillion, but the extra details in this novel were fun to read. Just two months till Deathly Hallows comes out, yes I have it preordered and it will arrive at my door on July 21st or I get it free (sweet). [exit nerdness stage right]

I made a really good dish last night for dinner, try it out, Artichoke Chicken. I added chopped spinach, and subbed half the mayo for sour cream.

uhmmm

yeah, so I was the only nerd who freaked out over Children of Hurin. there were plenty of copies at my local barnes and nobles.

at long last

i feel like its been a few ages since I first read that another Tolkien book, The Children of Hurin was going to be released. Finally, the wait is over. Had I been smart I would've pre-ordered it as I did the new harry potter book, but hopefully my local book store will have a copy of it today. now I just have to wait until July 21st for the deathly hallows. god im such a nerd.