First stages Jackson and Walsh first expressed interest in doing
The Hobbit in 1995, at that time envisioning it as the first of a trilogy (parts two and three would have been based on
The Lord of the Rings). Frustration arose when Jackson's producer,
Harvey Weinstein, discovered that
Saul Zaentz had production rights to
The Hobbit, but that distribution rights still belonged to
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's
United Artists (which had kept those rights, believing that filmmakers would prefer to adapt
The Hobbit rather than
The Lord of the Rings). The United Artists studio and its parent company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were
for sale in the mid-1990s, but the Weinsteins' attempts to buy the movie rights from United Artists were unsuccessful. Weinstein asked Jackson to go forward with adapting
The Lord of the Rings. Ultimately,
The Lord of the Rings was produced by
New Line Cinema, not the Weinsteins, and their rights to film
The Hobbit were set to expire in 2010. In September 2006, the new ownership and management of MGM, led by
Harry Sloan expressed interest in teaming up with New Line and Jackson to make
The Hobbit. , the film's director,
co-writer, and producer In March 2005, Jackson launched a lawsuit against New Line, claiming he had lost revenue from merchandising, video, and computer games releases associated with
The Fellowship of the Ring. He did not seek a specific settlement, but requested an
audit to see whether New Line had withheld money owed him. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer halted development, as Sloan wanted Jackson to be involved. By August, after a string of flops, Shaye tried to repair his relationship with Jackson. He said, "I really respect and admire Peter and would love for him to be creatively involved in some way in
The Hobbit." The following month, New Line was fined $125,000 for failing to provide requested accounting documents. Each film's budget was estimated to be at $150 million, compared to the $94 million budget for each of the films in Jackson's
Lord of the Rings trilogy. After completion of the merger of New Line Cinema with
Warner Bros. Pictures in February 2008, the two parts were announced as scheduled for release in December 2011 and December 2012. Jackson explained he chose not to originally direct The Hobbit because it would have been unsatisfying to compete with his previous films.
Christopher Tolkien said: "The trustees regret that legal action was necessary but are glad that this dispute has been settled on satisfactory terms that will allow the Tolkien Trust properly to pursue its charitable objectives. The trustees acknowledge that New Line may now proceed with its proposed film of The Hobbit."
With del Toro was originally set to direct the film, but left because of ongoing delays. Jackson stated that del Toro's "creative DNA" would remain in the scripts and designs. Despite the lawsuits, development continued to proceed and in April 2008,
Guillermo del Toro was announced to direct the film. Del Toro has said he was a fan of Peter Jackson's trilogy and had discussed directing
a film adaptation of Halo with Jackson in 2005. Though that project stalled, they kept in touch. After he signed on to direct in April 2008, Del Toro collaborated with Jackson, Walsh and Boyens via
videoconferencing and flew every three weeks, back and forth from Los Angeles (where some of the designs were done) Del Toro spent his mornings writing and afternoons looking at material related to Tolkien to help him understand the writer's work. He watched
World War I documentaries and asked book recommendations from Jackson, who is a collector of World War I memorabilia. Del Toro felt Tolkien's experiences in that war influenced his stories. By November 2008, del Toro had said that he, Jackson, Walsh and Boyens would realize something new about the story every week and the script was continually changing. The writing hours increased to twelve each day, as they dedicated three weeks to finally deciding the films' structures. During the first few months of 2009, writing would start from 8:30 am and end at 3:00 pm when del Toro would meet with Weta (i.e.,
Wētā Workshop and
Weta Digital film effects companies). Completion of the story outlines and treatments ended in March 2009 and the studios approved the start of writing the screenplay. Filming was expected to take place throughout 2010 in New Zealand, with del Toro renovating the
Hobbiton sets near
Matamata. For his part, Jackson had kept the
Rivendell scale model and the
Bag End set (which he has used as a
guest house) from the trilogy. The director expected the shoot to last 370 days. Jackson revealed in late November 2009 that he anticipated that the script for
The Hobbit would not be completed until the beginning of 2010, delaying the start of production until the middle of that summer, several months later than previously anticipated. The announcement created doubts about whether the film would make its previously announced release dates of December 2011 and December 2012.
Del Toro's interpretation Del Toro and Jackson had a positive working relationship, in which they compromised on disagreements for the benefit of the two Hobbit films. although Jackson noted he had similar hopes for filming all of his trilogy and offered to help as
second unit director. Del Toro planned on shooting the film in the trilogy's 2.35:1
aspect ratio, rather than his signature 1.85:1 ratio. though he wanted to increase the use of
animatronics; "We really want to take the state-of-the-art animatronics and take a leap ten years into the future with the technology we will develop for the creatures in the movie. We have every intention to do for animatronics and special effects what the other films did for
virtual reality." Spectral Motion (
Hellboy,
Fantastic Four) was among those del Toro wanted to work with again. He added, "The humble, sort of a sturdy moral fibre that Bilbo has very much represents the idea that Tolkien had about the little English man, the average English man", The
Elves will also be less solemn. As Tolkien did not originally intend for
the magic ring Bilbo finds to be the all-powerful talisman of evil it is revealed to be in
The Lord of the Rings, del Toro said he would address its different nature in the story, but not so much as to draw away from the story's spirit. Del Toro would have redesigned the
Goblins and
Wargs del Toro had originally considered asking Perlman to voice the dragon
Smaug, but later decided against this. Del Toro met with English actor
Brian Blessed to discuss the possibility of him playing
Thorin Oakenshield. The director later stated that he thought that
Ian McShane "would make the most perfect dwarf". Frequent del Toro collaborator
Doug Jones said that he would love to play the Elvenking
Thranduil, but del Toro later stated that he had another role (or roles) in mind for the actor. Del Toro was the one who originally pushed to cast
Sylvester McCoy as
Radagast the Brown, a choice Peter Jackson later followed. While del Toro initially wanted
Ian Holm to reprise the role of
Bilbo Baggins, he also said that he "absolutely" supported the casting of
Martin Freeman as the character, and wanted all other returning
Lord of the Rings characters to be played by the original actors where possible. Boyens stated that the most significant script change was to Bilbo's characterisation: "It shifted and changed into someone who, rather than being slightly younger and more innocent in the world, once had a sense of longing for adventure and has lost it and become fussy and fusty."
Del Toro's departure On 28 May 2010, he explained at a press conference that owing to
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's financial troubles the
Hobbit project had then not been officially
green-lit at the time. "There cannot be any start dates until the MGM situation gets resolved.... We have designed all the creatures. We've designed the sets and the wardrobe. We have done
animatics and planned very lengthy action sequences. We have scary sequences and funny sequences and we are very, very prepared for when it's finally triggered, but we don't know anything until MGM is solved." Two days later, del Toro announced at
TheOneRing.net that "In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming", he would "take leave from helming", further stating that "the mounting pressures of conflicting schedules have overwhelmed the time slot originally allocated for the project. ... I remain an ally to it and its makers, present and future, and fully support a smooth transition to a new director". Reports began to surface around the internet about possible directors; apparently the studios wanted Peter Jackson to return, but such names as
Neill Blomkamp,
Brett Ratner,
David Yates and
David Dobkin were mentioned. However, this incident received negative reaction from many
The Hobbit fans, who were angry at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for delaying the project. They also tried willing the studio to sell their rights to Warner Bros. On 27 July, del Toro responded to these angry fans, saying that "it wasn't just MGM. These are very complicated movies, economically and politically." On 25 June 2010, Jackson was reported to be in negotiations to direct the two films. On 15 October 2010,
New Line Cinema,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and
Warner Bros. Pictures confirmed that
The Hobbit was to proceed filming with Jackson returning as the director and that the film would be shot in
3D. As well as confirming Jackson as director, the film was reported to be
greenlit, with principal photography beginning in February 2011. Jackson stated that "Exploring Tolkien's
Middle-earth goes way beyond a normal film-making experience. It's an all-immersive journey into a very special place of imagination, beauty and drama." Jackson had said that del Toro's sudden exit created problems as he felt he had very little preparation time remaining before filming had begin, with unfinished scripts and no
storyboards, which increased the difficulty to direct the films. Jackson stated, "Because Guillermo del Toro had to leave and I jumped in and took over, we didn't wind the clock back a year and a half and give me a year and a half prep to design the movie, which was different to what he was doing. It was impossible, and as a result of it being impossible I just started shooting the movie with most of it not prepped at all. You're going on to a set and you're winging it, you've got these massively complicated scenes, no storyboards and you're making it up there and then on the spot." Jackson also said "I spent most of
The Hobbit feeling like I was not on top of it. Even from a script point of view, Fran [Walsh], Philippa [Boyens] and I hadn't got the entire scripts written to our satisfaction, so that was a very high pressure situation". However, Jackson went on to explain in the DVD/Blu-ray featurettes the various ways in which he and his crew overcame the obstacles encountered during filming. They found ways of making things work, even in a "very high pressure situation" in which he and his crew found themselves, especially the shooting of the Battle of the Five Armies which was shifted from 2012 to 2013 to be properly planned and shot.
Industrial dispute in New Zealand In May 2010, New Zealand Actors Equity (NZAE) received from the film's producers a sample of the contracts it was offering to actors'
agents. NZAE rejected the contracts as not conforming to its voluntary standard, in particular as regarded
residuals. This would subject actors who work on the film to possible expulsion from the union. In response,
Warner Bros. Pictures and
New Line Cinema considered taking the production elsewhere, with Jackson mentioning the possibility of filming in Eastern Europe. After two days of talks with the New Zealand government (including involvement by Prime Minister
John Key), Warner Bros. executives decided on 27 October to film
The Hobbit in New Zealand as originally planned. In return, the government agreed to introduce legislation to remove the right of workers to organise
trade unions in the film production industry and to give money to big budget films made in New Zealand. The legislation reversed a decision by the New Zealand Supreme Court called
Bryson v Three Foot Six Ltd holding that under the
Employment Relations Act 2000, a model maker named Mr Bryson was an "employee" who could organise a union to defend his interests. The Employment Relations (Film Production Work) Amendment Bill was introduced on 28 October 2010 after an urgency motion, allowing it to pass its final readings the next day, 66 votes in favour to 50 opposed. The government's legislation has been criticised as breaching the
International Labour Organization's core
ILO Convention 87 on
freedom of association, and giving an unfair subsidy to protect multinational business interests. Some have subsequently called the price (further financial subsidies and specific laws made for the producers' benefit) that New Zealand had to pay to retain the movie 'extortionate'. It was also argued that the discussion had occurred in a climate of 'hyperbole and hysteria'. In February 2013, emails and documents released under orders of the
Ombudsman showed that the union representing actors had already reached an agreement with Warner two days before 20 October protest, but Warner refused to confirm the deal publicly. One union representative said those on the march were 'patsies' that had been fooled into thinking the production would be taken offshore. Further emails released showed Government ministers knew a deal had been reached a week before the protest, despite claiming negotiations were still happening.
From two to three films The project had been envisaged as two parts as early as 2006, but the proposed contents of the parts changed during development.
MGM expressed interest in a second film in 2006, set between
The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings. Jackson concurred, stating that "one of the drawbacks of
The Hobbit is it's relatively lightweight compared to
LOTR [
The Lord of the Rings] .... There's a lot of sections in which a character like Gandalf disappears for a while – he references going off to meet with the
White Council, who are actually characters like
Galadriel and
Saruman and people that we see in
Lord of the Rings. He mysteriously vanishes for a while and then comes back, but we don't really know what goes on." Jackson was also interested in showing
Gollum's journey to
Mordor and
Aragorn setting a watch on the
Shire. After his hiring in 2008, del Toro confirmed the sequel would be about "trying to reconcile the facts of the first movie with a slightly different point of view. You would be able to see events that were not witnessed in the first." Del Toro also added (before writing began) that if they could not find a coherent story for the second film, they would just film
The Hobbit, stating "
The Hobbit is better contained in a single film and kept brisk and fluid with no artificial 'break point'." By November 2008, he acknowledged that the book was more detailed and eventful than people may remember. He decided to abandon the "bridge film" concept, feeling that it would be better for the two parts to contain only material from
The Hobbit: Del Toro said that he was faced with two possible places to split the story, In June 2009, del Toro revealed he had decided where to divide the story based on comments from fans about signifying a change in Bilbo's relationship with the Dwarves. The second film's story would also have depended on how many actors could have reprised their roles. According to Jackson, the third film would make extensive use of
the appendices that Tolkien wrote to support the story of
The Lord of the Rings (published in the back of its third volume,
The Return of the King). While the third film, which as its title indicates, depicts the Battle of the Five Armies, largely made use of footage originally shot for the first and second films, it required additional filming as well. The second film was retitled
The Desolation of Smaug and the third film was titled
There and Back Again in August 2012. On 24 April 2014, the third film was renamed
The Battle of the Five Armies. On the title change, Jackson said, "
There and Back Again felt like the right name for the second of a two film telling of the quest to reclaim Erebor, when Bilbo's arrival there, and departure, were both contained within the second film. But with three movies, it suddenly felt misplaced—after all, Bilbo has already arrived "there" in the
Desolation of Smaug". Shaun Gunner, the chairman of
The Tolkien Society, supported the decision: "
The Battle of the Five Armies much better captures the focus of the film but also more accurately channels the essence of the story." ==Cast==