The Frodo Franchise by Kristin Thompson
 
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November 23 : 2009

One down, one to go

Lewis Bazley of the “In the News” website today broke the news that the first Hobbit script is finished. Peter Jackson made the announcement at a press conference which was part of the lead-up to the premiere of The Lovely Bones in England. He said that the script has been “delivered to the studio who seem to be happy with it.” (I presume “the studio” is Warner Bros., of which New Line is now a production unit.) The second script is roughly halfway finished.

Thus we seem to be at the point we thought we were at in August, though it’s certainly pleasant to get some concrete information after a period of silence from filmmakers and studio alike. The question remains, when will the studio(s) greenlight the film? They probably need to see the scripts of both halves of the film before making up the final budget–especially since the biggest action scenes (not counting whatever gets added concerning an attack on Dol Guldur) are in the late chapters of the book.

(Thanks, Mary Norton!)

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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.”