The Frodo Franchise by Kristin Thompson
 
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December 28 : 2009

More, and better, information on Hobbit casting

[December 30: TheOneRing.net is now saying that there has actually been no casting call and will not be until February. I guess all this has the status of rumor right now.]

Apparently the previous announcement of Hobbit casting, despite having been posted on MGM’s website, was packed with misinformation. Jack, of The Noldor Blog, has some corrections and important new information.

Please note Jack’s emphasis on the fact that extras will need to be New Zealand citizens, permanent citizens, or people with long-term work permits. Do take that seriously if you don’t fall in one of those categories, because the filmmakers are constrained by labor laws.

Jack’s source says principal photography is to begin c. May or June.

The most important thing about the post as far as I’m concerned is that there is now an official company which has been formed to produce The Hobbit. It’s called 3 Foot 7, or Three Foot Seven. (I was never quite sure whether the LOTR production company was officially 3 Foot 6 or Three Foot Six.) To me, that implies that a greenlight has been given or is now just pro forma. The greenlight is what needs to happen before this production really gets going, and I hope we get an announcement of it soon.

[Jack has written to point out that he posted the name of the new production company (in yet a third version of how it's written) back in June. So it's not that new and not all that significant when it comes to guessing when a greenlight may come. Thanks, Jack!]

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    The Frodo Franchise
    by Kristin Thompson

    US flagbuy at best price

    Canadian flagbuy at best price

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    Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
    hardcover 978-0-520-24774-1
    421 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 12 color illustrations; 36 b/w illustrations; 1 map; 1 table

    “Once in a lifetime.”
    The phrase comes up over and over from the people who worked on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. The film’s 17 Oscars, record-setting earnings, huge fan base, and hundreds of ancillary products attest to its importance and to the fact that Rings is far more than a film. Its makers seized a crucial moment in Hollywood—the special effects digital revolution plus the rise of “infotainment” and the Internet—to satisfy the trilogy’s fans while fostering a huge new international audience. The resulting franchise of franchises has earned billions of dollars to date with no end in sight.

    Kristin Thompson interviewed 76 people to examine the movie’s scripting and design and the new technologies deployed to produce the films, video games, and DVDs. She demonstrates the impact Rings had on the companies that made it, on the fantasy genre, on New Zealand, and on independent cinema. In fast-paced, compulsively readable prose, she affirms Jackson’s Rings as one the most important films ever made.

    The Frodo Franchise

    cover of Penguin Books’ (NZ) edition of The Frodo Franchise, published September 2007. The tiny subtitle reads: “How ‘The Lord of the Rings’ became a Hollywood blockbuster and put New Zealand on the map.”