Hobbit Set reports from Quint of AICN

Post by **Elentári** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 2:42 pm

[Note: I split this off from the General Hobbit Film thead - VtF]
Quint's first report for AICN is now up - DEFINITE SPOILERS, including how The Hobbit fits into the LotR timeframe for the movies' purpose!!!!

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/51787

Mon Oct 31, 2011 2:56 pm

You beat me to it! I think I will remove the "possible" from the thread title. Very cool report.

Post by **Elentári** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 3:04 pm

Only just, V! I just got in from work a half-hour ago, and was so excited to see the report was up at last....so exciting to have some real news at last!

Awesome to see Elijah looking the same (albeit from a distance) as he did way back in 2001 when the opening sequence rolled for the first time!

Mon Oct 31, 2011 3:11 pm

And I loved the stuff about Kiran Shah. I didn't realize he was in so many great films.

Post by **Alatar** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 3:16 pm

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 3:39 pm

Looks as if the "framing device" might be nicely small and unobtrusive, but also effective. And clever—Frodo skipping off at the beginning of The Hobbit . . . to go start the opening Hobbiton scene of FotR! While meanwhile we stay with Bilbo at Bag End and slip gently into the past. I really like the sound of this.

Post by **Lalaith** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 3:45 pm

Post by **vison** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 3:52 pm

Keen.

Post by **Dave_LF** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 3:56 pm

The stuff about Frodo sounds good to me, but it conflicts with TORN's earlier report that the framing device would involve Frodo "getting" the story from the Red Book. Maybe we'll go back and forth between the past and present the whole time? (or maybe they changed their minds, or maybe TORN was wrong)

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:06 pm

It seems to me that at minimum they'll have four framing "moments," at the start and end of each film. We know what one of them is. One or more of the others could well involve the Red Book.

Post by **Elentári** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:19 pm

Yes, and don't forget that we see Bilbo pen the title page of the Red Book in "Concerning Hobbits", so maybe the retelling to Frodo comes immediately before that? Especially since we now know Frodo puts the "party" sign on the gate, (it's already up when FotR opens) so logically he comes on in and comes across Bilbo sitting at his desk...

Post by **Dave_LF** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:34 pm

Also, is it a bad sign that what is essentially the first unofficial spoiler is a fart joke?

Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:55 pm

We don't know that Quint is telling the full story of the beginning of the first film. I don't think that it contradicts what TORN reported.

I missed the "fart joke". To what are you referring?

Post by **Dave_LF** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:02 pm

Voronwë the Faithful wrote:I missed the "fart joke". To what are you referring?

“He wouldn’t miss a chance to let off his whiz-poppers. He’ll put on quite a show, you’ll see,”

As seen in The BFG; don't know whether Dahl invented the slang or if it was already in use at the time.

Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:12 pm

I'm just as happy not to know that. As far as I am concerned, that is nothing more than a simple reference to Gandalf's fireworks.

If that is the worst that we will have to deal with in terms of gross bodily function humour, I will be a very happy camper.

Post by **Elentári** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:56 pm

Glad that went over my head, too...

Seems I was on the right track with my thoughts on the Red Book transition from FotR to The Hobbit - Demosthenes over on TORn has penned his conclusions from what the AICN report tells us:

The Rings tie-in and the fact the link is occurring from the Long-expected Party back to An Unexpected Party is quite a neat piece of synchronicity. Thinking about this transition — and how it might work — triggered a very specific memory from Fellowship of the Rings.

It’s that initial scene where Ian Holm is sitting at his drawing table and making the front cover of his book. He writes “There and back again, A Hobbit’s tale, by Bilbo Baggins. By Bilbo Baggins.”

That’s the title of the second Hobbit film, not the first… but still pretty neat.

Now, all us massive Tolkien nerds (what do you mean you’re not one?) know that Bilbo had begun but not finished his book (how else could have Merry snuck a peek at it) at the time he left for Rivendell.

Still, I reckon that the transition will occur through that drawing of the title page.

Because in Fellowship, Holm’s very next line is “And now, where to begin?”

And I bet the answer will be perhaps the most important line ever written in fantasy: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

And then we’ll transition back 60 years…

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 8:42 pm

<shivers> That could work really well.

Post by **eborr** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 1:49 pm

If it's not there somewhere, it would be as great a crime as LOTR not beginning with "Three Rings for Elven Kings"

Tue Nov 01, 2011 1:52 pm

Well, since we've already heard it (in the first production video), I think it is safe to say that it will be there.

Tue Nov 01, 2011 5:58 pm

Thinking about this report, and the implication that the beginning and/or end of the Hobbit films will tie into the beginning of the LOTR films I can't help but wonder, just what is that book that Frodo is reading at the beginning of FOTR, just before he goes to greet the not-late wizard? Could it be the first part of the Red Book?