The Frodo Franchise by Kristin Thompson
 
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August 20 : 2008

Major Contracts signed for The Hobbit and “Film 2″

Variety announced yesterday that Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens have signed their contracts to work on The Hobbit and “Film 2.” The story specifies, “The announcement said the production’s tentatively set to begin in late 2009, with the releases set for 2011 and 2012.” From the dates the filmmakers have discussed online, I think “production” probably means principal photography. The plan given by Peter and Guillermo was for 2009 to be devoted to pre-production (design, construction, pre-viz, etc.).

Not that we had any doubts, but it’s good to hear that such core people are now officially on the projects.

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    The Frodo Franchise
    by Kristin Thompson

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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.”