Hobbitt Preproducton Updates

[Lord of the Rings]

MGM Expected To Seek $265 -$275 Million To Co-finance Hobbit Production





December 17th, 2010 by Earl | Source: Variety | Discuss | View Comments

Variety reports today that MGM, the studio co-producing the upcoming Hobbit films, has begun laying off employees to cut costs and, once it emerges from bankruptcy as early as next week with $500 million in cash available once it secures a JP-Morgan Chase loan, will be seeking an additional loan of $265 – $275 million to co-finance the Hobbit films.

    Layoffs, which had been anticipated, began Friday at MGM headquarters in Los Angeles and were mostly in distribution and marketing. MGM disclosed in recent bankruptcy filings that it had planned to cut the staff to about 320 from more than 400 but a spokeswoman indicated Friday that the number of cuts will be significantly smaller.

    MGM, which has released only one film this year, received approval on Dec. 2 from a bankruptcy court judge of its “pre-packaged” plan of reorganization. Studio plans to emerge from Chapter 11 as early as next week with $500 million in cash available, once it secures a JP-Morgan Chase loan.

    With Spyglass Entertainment toppers Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber in charge, MGM’s expected to seek a separate loan of $265 million-$275 million for its share of the back-to-back “Hobbit” movies.

The figures should provide a very good indication of the total production budget for the two Hobbit films. Join the discussions over at our message boards – there’s just about two months to go before principal photography begins.

[Gollum]

The Sun reports Dwarf Training to begin in January

By JEN BLACKBURN

Published: 22 Dec 2010
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JAMES Nesbitt is set to embark on a month of "dwarf training" to play mini hero Bofur in The Hobbit.

The Cold Feet star flies to New Zealand in January to film Sir Peter Jackson's adaptation of the JRR Tolkien novel.

The first few weeks of a year's shooting will see the 45-year-old star learn to sword fight and horse ride while wearing his dwarf prosthetics.

He said: "We're going for dwarf training for a month. It's an adventure and I can't wait for it. I've never done a massive film like it."

The Northern Irish actor will move across the globe with wife Sonia and their two daughters.

James, who stars alongside The Office's Martin Freeman - who plays the title role, added: "It's a once in a lifetime thing. Not just for me but for the family."

He has already been visited by a prosthetics expert to take a cast for how Bofur will look on screen.

James has just finished filming the lead role as a neurosurgeon in ITV1 drama Monroe, to be shown in 2011.


http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/3313274/Dwarf-James-Nesbitt-to-get-in-The-Hobbit.html

[Lord of the Rings]

Elijah Wood Will Be In The Hobbit Even Though Frodo Hasn't Been Born Yet
By Josh Tyler
Published: 2011-01-06 23:37:56




Elijah Wood Will Be In The Hobbit Even Though Frodo Hasn't Been Born Yet There’s still no word on whether or not Sir Ian McKellan will reprise the role of Gandalf in The Hobbit, even though outside of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf is probably the most important character in the story and they’re only a couple of weeks away from shooting. But we do know that Elijah Wood will be in it, though Frodo Baggins isn’t even alive during the time period in which The Hobbit takes place.

The One Ring has confirmed that Wood will return to Middle Earth when Peter Jackson begins filming the first installment in his Lord of the Rings prequels. Word is he isn’t actually locked up yet and is still in talks, but they don’t think there will be any problem since it is believed that he was consulted during the scripting phase and is on board with what Peter Jackson is doing. Not only do we now know he’ll be in the movie, we even know how they’ll fit him in and get around that whole pesky “not born yet when this story happens” thing. This is a pretty big spoiler though, so if you don’t want to know, stop reading right here.

Final Warning: Spoilers for the movie version of The Hobbit follow.

Word is that Elijah’s Frodo will show up at the beginning of the film. One Ring’s explanation of exactly how this happens is a little confusing so I’m just going to quote it here and see if you can make better sense of it than me:

    As readers of “The Hobbit” know, the tale of “The Downfall of The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit or There and Back Again,” are contained in the fictional “Red Book of Westmarch.” In Peter Jackson’s LOTR films, the books are shown on screen and written in by Bilbo and Frodo and handed off to Sam Gamgee. (Not explained on film are Sam’s progeny later having the book and being Wardens of the Westmarch — hence the book’s title.) The fictional book, and either the telling from or the reading of, will establish Frodo in the films, leaving viewers to experience the tale of ‘The Hobbit’ through Bilbo’s point of view.


Confused? Yeah me too. Suffice to say Frodo will show up at the beginning of the movie in some sort of plot device which brings us all back into the world of Middle Earth. Good enough.

For more info on The Hobbit including a complete breakdown of the cast members confirmed so far visit our Blend Film Database.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Elijah-Wood-Will-Be-In-The-Hobbit-Even-Though-Frodo-Hasn-t-Been-Born-Yet-22495.html?_r=true#

[Lord of the Rings]

Saoirse Ronan joins the cast of The Hobbit

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by: Niki Stephens Jan. 27, 2011


According to an interview with casting director Ros Hubbard, Saoirse Ronan has joined the cast of THE HOBBIT.

During a sit down with The Irish Film & Television Network, this is what was said about the casting that gave the tip off:

IFTN: I wondered if there was any coincidence between the large Irish presence (Aidan Turner, James Nesbitt and Saoirse Ronan) in the film and the fact that it was you guys casting . . .

Ros Hubbard: Yes, there was quite a lot of influence there! We had been wanting to to put Aidan Turner into film for a long time because he had done an awful lot of TV and we told him when we finally met him “We are going to concentrate in getting you into the movies.” I didn’t think it would be as big as this. But how great for him.

And Jimmy is thrilled to bits, his whole family have gone out, it is just wonderful. And working with Peter Jackson is like working with a family. So they’ll have a great time. Saoirse’s family will go too, everyone is very close and very loving on those sorts of jobs. It’s not like typical studio movies at all.

The last time the actress teamed up with Jackson was on THE LOVELY BONES in 2009. There's no word on what role Ronan will be playing in THE HOBBIT. As we reported earlier in the day, production is slightly delayed so that Jackson can recover from stomach surgery.

Source: IFTN , Coming Soon
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