C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were great friends that inspired one another. If you’d like, I will write a story on the many books that I know of that talk about this friendship. Today, the first trailer was released for the next film set in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. It is the first of a pair of films that are based on The Hobbit, which is the prelude to The Lord of the Rings. From the look of the trailer, Peter Jackson has another homerun on his hands. I cannot wait for these movies to be released. Moreover, I cannot wait to do an epic five movie run of the entire saga.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first of the two films, and will be released less than one year from today, on December 14, 2012. It can’t come soon enough, for me. The Lord of the Rings films did for me what I suspect the Star Wars films did for folk when those first came out. I saw those again and again at the cinema. They also brought me back into the world of Narnia, which lead directly to this website. Yes, you have LOTR to thank for this website even existing. (A small part of why I started a Narnia site was because of the friendship of Tolkien and Lewis would allow me to write about his works from time to time, as I am doing now.) But that’s neither here nor there.
Watching this trailer just once, you’ll notice the music and the look and feel of the film will be both familiar and new. You’ll see characters and settings that you recognize and that you don’t. You’ll see Middle-Earth. I can’t wait to return to those shores again, while we wait for any news about a new Narnia film and this, my friends, is enough to hold me over.
I’m so incredibly excited that I’m shaking! The dwarfs singing sent shivers down my spine. I have this trailer on repeat, and I’m working on memorizing everything.
Google Plus EXPLODED with the news. I’m thinking that the entire Internet might crash at the rate people are watching/sharing the trailer. =)
I agree with you Daniel! I LOVE the singing part, and I will be watching this SO much in the future!
CANNOT WAIT UNTIL DECEMBER :O
I MIGHT GO CRAZY BEFORE THEN 😀
You beat me to it! Waiting will be worth it …………….. but a full year? Lions, tigers, bears OH MY!
Looks very promising. Wonderful music, nice settings. I also like how the young Bilbo looks like he could be a young Ian Holm playing Bilbo (the use of different actors does not make you want to disbelief the story).
That said, I will wait till this comes out in a “complete” box. Been hurt to much by New Lines greediness in releasing first a move then a DVD, then a better DVD and so on. If I have waited this long, I can wait 4 more years or so.
PS: “Writers: Guillermo del Toro, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens”
And here I thought Tolkien wrote “Bilbo”. I hope this is not an “inspired by a book of Tolkien, but wildly different”.
Writers on the Lord of the Rings were the same, save for Guillermo del Toro. Guillermo del Toro was originally going to direct The Hobbit, but backed out when the filming was delayed. Tolkien did write The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. The screenplays, however, were all written by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens. The only difference this time is the additional fourth writer. How much of his influence has stayed is likely going to be impossible to know, as rewrites on The Lord of the Rings were almost daily. Kind of a longish explanation, but it’s just so you know: this is completely normal.
When it comes to the DVD releases being Theatrical and then Extended (and the subsequent Blu-ray discs releasing in the same manner), New Line didn’t do the DVD releases that way out of greed. They included a trailer for the Extended Edition DVDs on the theatrical cuts, and Peter Jackson and his team needed the extra time to put together the extended version at the same time as they were editing the next film for release the following December. The Blu-ray releases, however, should have been concurrent. That said, when I read there would be two versions of each film, it was months before the release of the theatrical DVDs, and I still opted to get those because I wanted to have the ability to watch them while I waited for the Extended cuts.
Right, plus there was no way the movie going audiences would have sat throuh the full EE’s in theaters. The EE’s represent Peter Jackson’s true vision for the films and are far superior to the theatrical editions.
can’t wait to see the movie!!! im so excited!!! ^^,
OH MY FREAKING GOODNESS!!! I had not seen the trailer until now!!! It looks SO FANTASTICALLY AWESOME (as all of the LOTR movies are)!!!
*sigh* The worst thing about it, is that Peter Jackson is releasing the first DVD in December, and then we have to wait an entire year before the next video comes out.
But that doesn’t mean that I’m not totally psyched!!! 🙂
did you mean the dvd or the movie? I doubt that he would release the dvd the same month as the movie.
Heheh, my bad. That’s what I meant. 🙂
Just so we’re clear… he’s not releasing the DVD in December. The movie is coming to theaters in December, and the second movie is coming the following December. (Just want to make sure that people don’t get a false impression of what is actually being released. It’s not straight to home video, but rather theatrical. The eventual Blu-ray and DVD release for each Hobbit movie should follow the same patterns as The Lord of the Rings… with a release of the film the following April or so, with a potential Extended Edition in November.)
Wow, I think the movie looks like it has potential, with some more patience from us fans for the film to be edited even more.
I have only read The Hobbit 1 1/2 times so far, but I really like the book a lot. I’m understanding it even better this time around, and hope to read the LotR trilogy sometime soon.
From what I’ve heard, there is going to be some subplot of some sort with Gandalf(?), so I will probably have to read the trilogy before the movie is released.
The song that is sung is very much how I imagined it while reading. And Smeagol… 😛
Well, on to read more of the book.
Well, if you remember from the book, Gandalf leaves Bilbo and the dwarves at the edge of Mirkwood. From what I gather, in the movie, they are going to explain where Gandalf went, why Mirkwood was in the state that is was, and just all in all try to build a stronger connection between ‘The Hobbit’ movies and the LOTR movies than there was between ‘The Hobbit’ book and the LOTR books. If you can, I would strongly recommend reading the LOTR sometime. They are wonderful books! (Of course, Narnia is, too!)
Also, for any of you LOTR movie fans out there who may not yet know: Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Hugo Weaving (Elrond), and (as you saw in the trailer) Elijah Wood (Frodo), Ian Holm (older Bilbo), Ian McKellan (Gandalf), Andy Serkis (Gollum), and Cate Blanchette (Galadriel) are all going to be in the movies. I am not sure about John Rhys-Davies (Gimli). First, I read that he couldn’t do it, then I read that he was trying to make it work out. Anyway, I hope I didn’t butcher any of the above names to badly!
From the trailer, I think this looks pretty good! Now just comes the impatient waiting… Oh well! Maybe it will help tide us over until we hear something more definite about the next Narnia!
Oh yessss… Gollum, gollum. I am really looking forward to ‘Riddles in the Dark’! 🙂 My preciousss…
LOL, IKR? I was talking with one of my Narnia + LOTR friends, and we had a debate over if we felt bad for Gollum/Smeagol. I truthfully found a lot of reasons to feel bad for him, but she disagrees. 🙂
I can’t wait. I thought the heavy action trailers were chilling, but this one is far more chilling and it is far more subtle. I half thought it was going to be like the final two Potter films because the story was split in the end and they called them by part 1 and part 2. I was wrong. They are putting it out like it is its own series, except with only two films. I find it is also extremely early to release a trailer. We still have a year to go till then. Oh well, I am happy regardless.
Yes, please do write a review of books about the friendship of Tolkien and Lewis!
I agree. Please do!
Oh awesome!!! I am getting really excited about ‘The Hobbit’! 😀
You know, Paul, LOTR brought me to Narnia, too! 😉 In my opinion, they are both the best movies and the best books!
By the way, thanks, Paul, for having such a positive, user-friendly website! I really appreciate your ever-optimistic outlook on the movies! Keep up the good work!
Ohhhh! It looks so good! I hope it turns out well. (Which it looks like it is so far!) Gollum creeped me out a bit though! 😀
I don’t know how I’m going to be able to wait until next December! 🙂 I saw the trailer in theaters when I went to go see The Adventures of Tintin yesterday – great movie BTW! (Go see it!) I wonder if the Hobbit will be worth seeing in 3D!? I have a feeling it’s one I’ll want to see in 3D (or maybe IMAX) and then again in 2D… CAN’T WAIT!! ;D
Definitely 3D. They’re shooting it at 48 frames per second with the latest 3D cameras. That’s double the current frame rate of every other film out there now. The film will look smoother, and the 3D better, than anything that you’ve ever seen before. (That’s if you can find a cinema that displays digitally and has been upgraded to project at 48 FPS.)
It’s might be a good thing they are waiting to make more Narnia films. Don’t want to compete with the Hobbit.
how i wish lewis had taken some adivce from tolkein before writng narnia…
how i wish lewis had taken some advice from tolkein before writng narnia…..
Why do you wish that, dilip? I believe that Lewis did well NOT to take Tolkien’s advice.
How do you know that he didn’t? They actually took each other’s advice, as well as the rest of the Inklings. They very much inspired each other.
Not to start an argument or anything, but I did here somewhere that Tolkien did not believe Lewis’s Narnia was fantasy because it wasn’t like his or something like that. It might have been a rumor and so I could be wrong. I agree with you, but I did here this somewhere.
Apart from that I’m sure they did not agree on everything and take every crook and nanny advice given. At the same time they probably took many of each other’s advice. Like all good friendships like theirs I’m sure there were a few hardships in between. That is what makes a good friendship all the better.
Tolkien only read a bit of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He only didn’t like that Lewis used particular fantastical types of creatures in his own way, changing them from their origins into his own thing, and that Lewis was merging fact and fiction. There’s a longer explanation than that, but it wasn’t as harsh as people like to make it sound.
Okay thanks, Paul! That helped clear that part up in my head.
They Did take each others advice, they were like best friends. Made a company together, and gave ideas. 😀
Wow a trailer already!? Caught me totally off guard; so much so that I didn’t even get to experience the anticipation of waiting for it! Anyway, it looks beautiful and epic. Looks like what i had thought Narnia was evolving into.. until Narnia went hibernating. Looks to be the #1 I’m anticipating in 2012.
It looked kinda boring 😕
It must be because they haven’t filmed the action segments yet because there harder to finish?
Color me confused, but I think you missed a number of shots of action. Plus, this one will feature a Dragon. At least in the second part of it. Plus, there’s the Battle of Five Armies to look forward to as well. (The Dragon and the Battle of Five Armies will both be in The Hobbit: There and Back Again. This one will set that up.)
Oh, forgot about the Battle of Five Armies. 🙂 That only gives me more to think about!
And by the way, Caleb: IDK if you’ve read the Hobbit, but the book was anything BUT boring, and the trailer showed a handful of those good actions scenes as well. Yes, I agree that the plot line (Bilbo going and coming back from a journey) doesn’t sound too great, but the things that he does (escaping from trolls, meeting Gollum, finding that darn ring, being in a huge battle) adds a whole lot to the adventure of it all! 🙂
I have not read it yet. I’d rather watch the movie first 😉
I’m guessing it will be a great movie. I do love action, but I’m betting there will be more action in the second movie after the first one has got the story going.
Does anybody know why they are doing two separate movies???
They couldn’t fit the whole story in only one movie very easily.
“Yes, you have LOTR to thank for this website even existing.”
-sigh- i always thought so. no offense to you or anyone but i think you started a narnia website because you figured it was going to be the next LOTR and wanted to jump on the bandwagon. sad that it seems like narnia cannot stand on its own. LOTR clearly had an impact on the filmmakers…way too much of an impact making them feel like nothing more than family friendly LOTR.
Bandwagon? Seriously, I take offense to this statement, regardless of your “no offense.” You cannot just say “no offense” and expect everything that you say afterward to be okay or inoffensive, anymore than you can end a statement with “just saying” and expect the same result. That was not a kind thing to say, and very incorrect. I started this website as a fan of Narnia, when I heard that there were going to be Narnia movies and I wanted to follow them. The Narnia movies only exist because the Lord of the Rings do, and did very well. Thanks, but no thanks, Jill.
“The Narnia movies only exist because the Lord of the Rings do.”
another statement that is unfortunately true.
I consider it a positive and I’m thankful for that reason. It’s not a bad thing at all, and I don’t understand the negative attitude.
She’s wrong when she’s talking about you. But I do agree that Narnia is always looked at as if it needs to compare to LoTR. Narnia is its own, it has a different setting than LoTR, it shouldn’t be compared to it!