The Hobbit - Peter Jackson taken off project
 

Now normally I don't read through the entertainment section of the news... but I had to after a friend sent me a copy of a certain story.

Apparently New Line Cinema will be making 'The Hobbit' sans Peter Jackson... apparently in retaliation for an ongoing royalties fight over LOTR...

<comic guy voice> "Stupidest decision ever!"

Director Peter Jackson says he's lost the rights to make 'The Hobbit'
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/0..._peter_jackson

just saw this on MSN and i completely agree - ehhhhhhhh!

I'm going to hold out judgement. LOTR was amazing, but Jackson did take some creative liberties. He was talking about adding material to the Hobbit and making it a two-parter. Uh uh. Not cool.

The Harry Potter movies did very well with different directors telling different stories. I suspect that someone else could do as well.

The question is, will they get Hugo Weaving and Ian McKellan to play Elrond and Gandalf again?

Actually I kinda agreed with the two part logic... split it when they make it to the village, before they go into the mountain - which would mean they might have had to pad the mountain exploration and all just to make the second half more than just hoard, arrow, dragon dead, five armies...

I would rather have had a 4-6 parter for LOTR though. (Give each book its own movie, then you could include so much more) You'd have to add quite a bit to The Hobbit and unless it's Tom Bombadil I'm not going to be happy.
I'd also rather have one long movie than two 90 minute ones...

I don't know enough about The Hobbit (I haven't read it) but if Elrond and Gandalf are supposed to be in it, they should definately try to get Ian and Hugo to do it. It wouldn't be "the same" if other people "took over" the roles.

Question: are there any other characters from LOTR other than the obvious hobbits, Gandalf and Elrond in The Hobbit?

To my recollection no. Or at least no one who would look the same. I don't remember if the armies were of any "nation" that we would know or recognize the leader. But even if, for example, Rohan was there, Theoden would be a kid if he was even alive.
(And I could see them playing with the timeline to have you "meet" those characters... or maybe Sam's old Gaffer or something)

The obvious that you note -- Bilbo -- is in both. He is the title character, but as Drolefille suggests, he was 51 in The Hobbit, 60 years younger than we see him on his "eleventy-first" (111th) birthday at the beginning of LOTR.

The only other "repeat" characters that I can think of are some of the dwarves, such as Gloin (Gimli's father) who are present at Elrond's Council in the book, but aren't really brought out in the movie. Also there are the Sackville-Bagginses, but again they don't have much of a presence in the movie. And Gwahir, the eagle, is in both, but he's CGI.

Frodo, of course, had not yet been born when The Hobbit takes place.

It's been a while since I've read The Hobbit but was Saruman in it? I know Gandalf & Elrond were but I honestly can't recall if Saruman was.

Nope. See above for the repeat characters. I have to say I like LOTR a lot better than The Hobbit. Oh but that chainmail shirt Bilbo gives Frodo? That came from The Hobbit.
Great, now I have The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins stuck in my head.

Sauron, on the other hand, is referred to but not seen in The Hobbit. (Of course, he is never really seen in LOTR either.)

He is "The Necromancer" who has taken up in Dol Gildur in the southern part of Mirkwood. The elves at first do not realize who he is.

He's the whole reason that "Mirkwood" once wonderful and like Lothlorien is now more of a "murk"-wood, dark and foreboding. (Isn't Legolas the prince of Mirkwood? Do we meet his father?)

Yes. His father was Thranduil, who in The Hobbit is referred to as "the Elvenking."

Okay, I think I'm about to decide that it's time once again to re-read The Silmarillion, then The Hobbit, the LOTR (for about the hundredth time).

I need to own the Silmarillion... sadly I only have my LOTR now. I wore out my original copy of it and the Hobbit.

Think they'll stick Legolas in the film just because they can?

I have a first edition -- bought it the day it came out.

And nah, I'm guessing they wouldn't try to stick Legolas in. Who knows, though.