Three 'Hobbit' Films? Peter Jackson Says Tolkien Would've Wanted It
If there is anyone who understands the overwhelming nature of fan pressure behind translating a beloved book for the big screen, it's Peter Jackson. After the Oscar-winner's tremendous success with "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy the man earned enough geek cred for life, which for Jackson meant that he had the leeway to start out making "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" for himself first and then start thinking about the fans.
"It's always difficult because you try not to make films for other people and I find the only thing I can do is make the movie for myself," Jackson told MTV News recently when asked if he worried about fan expectations during the making of "The Hobbit." "I'm a J. R. R. Tolkien fan and this is the 'Hobbit' movie I'd love to see, but then you get to the point when you realize it's not all about you. So you have to hand the movie over to the world and it's great that people have responded the way they have."
In addition to the film being a faithful adaptation of author Tolkien's source material, fans are also curious about the story being expanded to fill three films, which Jackson promised is almost entirely inspired by Tolkien himself.
"A lot of the embellishment, almost all comes from Tolkien because he wrote a lot of notes for an expanded version that he was going to revise after 'The Lord of the Rings.' There were elements looking back at 'The Hobbit' that he wished he'd included," Jackson explained. "So he did have a lot of notes for what he was going to revise but he never got that book done. Those notes were published after his death at the end of 'Return of the King,' so we were able to access a lot of that. All of the expanding and embellishment was based on the ideas Tolkien was exploring. Things involving Galadriel [played by Cate Blanchett], she's part of the White Council, which is [comprised of] Elrond [Hugo Weaving], Gandalf [Ian McKellan] and Saruman [Christopher Lee]. That story line we've included was from those notes as well."
Check out everything we've got on "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."
