Chronicling The Hobbit, Part One: Development

This will be the first of a four-part series on the development, production and release of The Hobbit that will seek to bring scientific rigour to the production process, thereby answering questions to do with the degree of preproduction work involved in the films, Del Toro’s exit, and post-productions decisions like the split to three-films and so forth. The first and present part is about early development, and will be followed by parts on preproduction with Del Toro and Jackson, Production, and then Post-Production, including editing, pickups and release.

Returning, however, to early development at hand, I think many people have an image of Peter Jackson having nothing to do with The Hobbit until Del Toro quit and he was “pushed” into it. That’s not the case, and not just because Jackson was the producer and writer of the film (a capacity I’ll expand on later) but most importantly: because Jackson was developing The Hobbit since…September 1995!

Jackson had always wanted to make a fantasy film: he “heard” of The Lord of the Rings even before he saw Bakshi’s film,^[1]Peter Jackson interview, February 2004 and actually started working on a Conan-esque fantasy “in the early 80s” and designed a Troll head, but abandoned it in favour of Bad Taste.^[2]Brian Sibley, Peter Jackson: A Film-Maker’s Journey (HarperCollins: 2006), p. 342. During post-production on The Frightners, he had pitched doing an original, Tolkien-esque fantasy story to partner Frances Walsh. While they discussed this idea for a few weeks, we don’t know what concepts were discussed but I think we can definitely presume some of these concepts ended-up in The Lord of the Rings but also in The Hobbit. In fact, the issue was that every idea Jackson brought up was shut-down by Walsh as deriviative of Tolkien’s books.^[3]Sibley, p. 529; Ian Nathan, Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-Earth (HarperCollins: 2018), p. 92 So, wondered Jackson, shouldn’t we just do The Lord of the Rings? Fran Walsh then told him they should start with The Hobbit, which she had read but Jackson hadn’t. ^[4]Roadshow Films, The Hobbit (2012) Exclusive Peter Jackson & Philippa Boyens Interview, YouTube, 17 December 2012

He immediately got a copy and set to reading it. Jackson tends to write notes in the books that he reads with the intention of adapting, so we can assume this early reading (and Jackson reread it at least once more before 1997) engendered a lot of ideas in the form of notes. We don’t have access to that, but we know some of Jackson’s impressions from this first reading: The film being more Dwarf-centric has its beginning here, when Jackson was wondering “whether its the story of the Dwarves wanting to reclaim their homeland, or is it really about them wanting the gold?”^[5]Peter Jackson, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (New Line Cinema: 2013), Director’s Commentary. Certainly, the “dread” for him was “the thirteen Dwarves” which, alongside Bilbo, Gandalf and a smattering of others, he’d have to bestow with distinct personalities. “The Hobbit has a very simple story with very little character development. It would actually be harder to adapt into a satisfying movie.”^[6]Ain’t it cool news. “20 Questions with Peter Jackson”. Herr-der-ringe-film.de. Also, the idea of giving more screentime to the Battle at the end of the story had also began gestating: At the wrap-party of The Frighteners, he’d shared his idea with the crew, including VFX artist Stephen Regelous, and together they came-up with the idea of a software that could animate huge armies: the MASSIVE software used in Helm’s Deep and Pelennor was originally devised for The Hobbit!^[7]Nathan, p. 637; JW Braun, The Lord of the Films: The Unofficial Guide to Tolkien’s Middle-Earth on the Big Screen (ECW: 2009) pp. 63ff.

Jackson pitched The Hobbit as one film to Miramax: if it’d be succesfull, he’d then make two Lord of the Rings films back-to-back. That it was to be one film is something we probably need to view along the same lines as Lord of the Rings being two: not necessarily because Jackson thought it was the best choice, but because that was the scope of his ambitions at the time: he wasn’t in a position to pitch five movies and he would have known it.^[8]Exeter College, Oxford, Sir Peter Jackson in conversation: Exeter College Oxford Eighth Century Lecture Series, YouTube, 30 July 2015.

Miramax had discovered that the rights to The Hobbit were split: via Saul Zaentz, they had access to the production rights, but not to the distribution rights, which belonged to MGM. Its telling that neither Miramax nor Jackson gave-up on The Hobbit straight away: they explored partnering with MGM or buying the rights, but since MGM were bankrupt, this was out of the question. Still, Jackson was greatly frustrated that the rights to The Hobbit proved unavailable, and it reportedly played a part in his decision to postpone the project until after King Kong. Even as they were working on Kong, Jackson admits he reread The Hobbit.^[9]Sibley, p. 548-552, 570.

When Kong fell apart in 1997 and Jackson came back to Middle Earth, he still hoped to get The Hobbit made first: he’d actually told Richard Taylor and his team to start designing it,^[10]Nathan, p. 405, Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood (University of California Press: 2007), p. 23. and designer Daniel Falconer remembers that Taylor, Weta’s team and illustrator Bernie Wrightson made “a few sketches” before the rights situation proved impossible. ^[11]Nerd of the Rings, Daniel Falconer talks designing Lord of the Rings, Guillermo del Toro’s Hobbit, Wētā, and more! YouTube, 1 February 2022. Nevertheless, a week later Weta artist Jamie Beswarick designed an Orc and the Cave-troll (both of which were approved by Jackson and made it to the finished film), which serviced both stories.^[12]Nathan, pp. 347ff.

Furthermore, in conversations with Miramax The Hobbit was not canceled: it was kept in mind for a future prequel. When the project went to New Line, clearly The Hobbit came-up again because Jackson said that “New Line will definitely make The Hobbit if LotR is a success”, nor did he rule-out directing it. “It depends on my mental condition in 3 years!”, he jested. He also started coming-up with plans to film some of the material in between the two narratives: “we would write and shoot […] scenes involving Gandalf and Aragorn hunting Gollum, and his capture by Orcs … and any number of other bits of business that we can’t fit [in the films].”^[13]“20 QUESTIONS WITH PETER JACKSON – PART 2”

Jackson had used The Hobbit for reference in adapting Lord of the Rings: Bag End is designed off descriptions found in The Hobbit,^[14]Braun, p. 19 ff. and of off a painting of John Howe that comes from an edition of The Hobbit. ^[15]Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (New Line Cinema: 2002), The Appendices: Part One – From Book to Vision, Designing Middle-Earth. Many references to that story crop-up in the films, not just the Trolls and namedropping Thorin in Fellowship of the Ring, but even at the crossroads in The Return of the King when Sam tells Frodo they’re “going There and Back Again, just like Mr. Bilbo.” In order to have Thorin’s map feature in Bag-End, they had Henry Mortensen check that it will have indeed survived and presumably end-up with Bilbo.^[16]Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (New Line Cinema: 2002), Director’s Commentary. Again, a lot of the design work – Trolls, Orcs, Goblins, Wargs – was going to be relevant for both stories. Indeed, when Jackson was tracking down “every piece of visual interpertation of Tolkien that had ever been done” he will have stumbled upon pieces from The Hobbit, for instance Alan Lee’s illustration of the Great Goblin that Jackson would later reference when designing him.^[17]Sibley, p. 610. Peter Jackson, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (New Line Cinema: 2013) The Appendices: Part Eight – Return to Middle-Earth, “The Peoples and Denizens of … Continue reading

Indeed, several beats were repurposed for The Hobbit: early on, Jackson had come-up with having Sam AND Merry and Pippin caught evesdropping by Gandalf by having them tumble through the door as he opened it: a beat that ended-up in The Hobbit. Previz for a sequence of the Fellowship going through rapids while being fired at by Orcs (with Legolas standing on the gunwalls while firing back) was repurposed into the Barrel-ride scene. I think the warrior Arwen of many of the earlier drafts is an antecedent of Tauriel, and some rejected shots for the prologue of Khazad Dum at its prime are an embryo of some of the crane shots of Erebor. Various spaces of both Bag-End and Rivendell that were designed or even built for The Lord of the Rings but not featured in the films, ended-up appearing in The Hobbit. Indeed, both the Bag-End and Rivendell sets were preserved by Jackson and reused for The Hobbit. ^[18]The Rivendell model included a cylindrical chamber which was considered as a possible setting for the Counil, but was redesigned in The Hobbit as the White Council chamber. Likewise a floor-plan for … Continue reading Coincidence? And was Jackson’s decision to cast a relatively young Gandalf affected by the idea that he could get him to return for The Hobbit? One wonders.^[19]As described by Ian Nathan (pp. 231, 239), older or otherwise less-fit actors including Sir Sean Connery, Christopher Plummer, Tom Baker, Paul Scofield, Sir Nigel Hawthorne, Richard Harris, Max von … Continue reading

While “on location”, Elijah Wood recalls that when he asked Jackson about doing The Hobbit, he was “quick to answer” with the negative, ^[20]Peter Jackson, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (New Line Cinema: 2013) The Appendices: Part Seven – A Long Expected Journey: The Chronciles of The Hobbit, The Journey Back to Middle Earth. but in the rigmarole of shooting that’s to be expected. By post-production on The Two Towers in 2002, Jackson’s tenor had changed: he had dicussed doing The Hobbit and a “bridge” film with executive producer Mark Ordesky, and spoke to Howard Shore about scoring it. Shore would later admit he had some thematic ideas already in mind for a future Hobbit adaptation (indeed, many of his themes were already relevant to both narratives anyway). ^[21]Will Harris, INTERVIEW: Howard Shore (“The Lord of the Rings”), Rhino, 27 April 2018. Xoanon, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh Talk THE HOBBIT, The One Ring net, 19 November 2006. At the next BAFTAs, Philippa Boyens saw Martin Freeman attending, and said that “if we ever did The Hobbit, he’d be a fantastic Bilbo.”^[22]Peter Jackson, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (New Line Cinema: 2013) The Appendices: Part Eight – Return to Middle-Earth, Mr. Baggins: The 14th Member.

After The Return of the King, Ordesky recalls there was an expectation that “we’d be making The Hobbit in some short order.”^[23]Nathan, p. 672 Indeed, by 2006 Jackson had spoken about how doing The Hobbit – now as two films – could include the White Council and even a role for Legolas! ^[24]Eric Vespe, Part 5: Quint and Peter Jackson talk THE HOBBIT and a potential return to low budget horror!!! Ain’t It Cool News, 16 September 2006 The only problem was that Jackson had had a falling-out with New Line in the interim, and they tipped Sam Raimi to direct instead. They still needed MGM, and after Jackson’s name cropped-up in a meeting, MGM’s CEO Harry Sloan called Jackson’s agent to ask about the situation between him and New Line. Its telling that Jackson and Walsh took the time to meet Sloan and explain themselves well-enough that he later told New Line he would not proceed without Jackson.^[25]Nathan, pp. 700 ff. Jackson decided he would be the producer, and chose Del Toro with whom they had worked on a possible Halo adaptation, to direct.

Should the fact that Jackson ultimately chose to produce the film and not direct it be seen as a vote of disinterest? I don’t think so. Jackson is a very avid producer, and has taken the backseat for many projects that he feels passionate about like The Adventures of Tintin (directed by Steven Spielberg), The Dambusters (to have been directed by Christian Rivers) and Mortal Engines (directed by Rivers), which was the project he was going to direct before he had to jump into The Hobbit‘s director seat. In the next episode we will explore just how involved with the project Jackson was as producer for Guillermo Del Toro, and how and why he chose to take the director’s seat instead of Del Toro and what the ramifications of that were.