The Frodo Franchise by Kristin Thompson
 
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November 5 : 2009

A thorough summary of the current Hobbit situation

My friend MrCere over at TheOneRing.net has written a long summary of what has been going on in the pre-production phase of The Hobbit films. With an inside source, he is able to get more specific about what we’ve known for some time now. That is, the design work has been underway for a long time, parallel to the scripting. Apparently costume designs exist, though they can’t be realized as actual costumes until there’s a cast to do fittings. Some “bigatures” are said to be under construction. An actor to play Bilbo has been chosen, though none of the cast has officially been put under contract, since the film is not officially greenlit yet. Storyboarding is going on, as is location scouting. So, although we still know frustratingly little in this period when there’s a dearth of news from the filmmakers themselves, MrCere gives as thorough a summary of the current state of affairs as anyone could–anyone who’s not under a stricture of complete silence due to a confidentiality agreement with New Line.

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    The Frodo Franchise
    by Kristin Thompson

    US flagbuy at best price

    Canadian flagbuy at best price

    UK flagbuy at best price

    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.”