I’m back from the film festival in Bologna. I can’t say there has been a lot of real news about The Hobbit since I left–which isn’t surprising, given that the cast is having a break from principal photography. Location scouting and other technical work is going on behind the scenes, but that’s not making headlines.

Belatedly, though, I caught up with a nice interview that Elijah Wood did on Movieline. He talks quite a bit about his time spent living in New Zealand and working on the LOTR trilogy, including:

So were you apprehensive at all about having to go back to it every year for three years — plus press tours, premieres and the like?

That was actually a joy. That was a total joy. I think it was April or May of 2001 that I got the first call that I was going back to New Zealand for pick-ups. I was elated — so happy to go back and visit everyone again and be back in New Zealand for a month. I was excited. So we got used to the construct that we’d be going back. We thought, “OK, we’ll be going back next year and the year after that as well.” We got used to that.

The press was a different thing entirely. Press is work. Making a film isn’t work. Press is work. You don’t sign up to do press.

They always say that’s the job — that’s what you’re paid for in the end.

That’s the job. But our press schedule was intense; it certainly was the largest press tour — all three of them — that I’ve ever been on. It was still filled with fun, because it was our group of people. It was Peter and all the cast, or any number of the cast who was available to travel. Those experiences were a lot of fun, too: Going to Japan — twice — for Lord of the Rings, never having been to Japan before. Different parts of Europe where we went to screen the film. It was extremely exciting.

That was of particular interest to me, since I deal with the press junkets in Chapter 4 of The Frodo Franchise.

Here’s what he had to say about The Hobbit:

And now there’s The Hobbit. You are involved, right?
I am, actually. It’s a tiny little piece. Frodo’s obviously not alive at the time of The Hobbit — it’s about 60 years before Frodo’s birth. So they’ve written a bit of a piece with Ian Holm as well, reprising his role as the older Bilbo, that I’ll do. I can’t really talk too much about it; it might be a bookend sort of deal. The story of The Hobbit he wrote down as There and Back Again: A Hobbit’s Tale, and you see that in The Lord of the Rings. And Frodo then carries on finishing the book from his side, from his perspective of his journey. And so I think it’ll have something to do with the writing of that book and potentially getting into the story of The Hobbit that he ultimately wrote.

Are you looking forward to going back?
Yeah, very much. It feels like a family reunion that I’m going back for. A number of the cast members are coming back. Largely the same crew — the same first A.D. I went back a year ago in February just to visit. I was down in Australia, so I went over for nine days and caught up with a bunch of people. Alan Lee and John Howe, the conceptual artists for Lord of the Rings, were in the art department doing the drawings. Dan and Chris Hannah, who were our art directors, were busy planning sets they were building. It was wild, man, to be back in that whirlwind, see all those people, but working in Middle Earth again. And at the same time, Guillermo [del Toro] was there writing with Peter and Fran [Walsh], and he was set to direct at the time. I was visiting with Guillermo and seeing a lot of the conceptual art. Ultimately he didn’t wind up directing it. But it was wild. It was really cool to be back there, and I feel like it’s going to feel the same.

You know, there’s a production diary that Peter did leading up to the filming of The Hobbit, and at the end of the production diary it shows the first day: They did a Maori ceremony, which we had done on Rings as well. They’re on this big empty soundstage, and the crew’s there, and these incredible traditional Maori people, and they did the haka and there was a Maori speech. Then Peter comes up and gives a speech; they showed a bit of his speech. It was really interesting, because we’d talked about the fact that he’d never really wanted to do The Hobbit. And I remember asking him when we were making [Lord of the Rings] if he’d ever do it, and he said he wasn’t interested.

And now he said, “You know, we were to the point where Guillermo was going to do it, and then he didn’t do it, and now I’m doing it. And here I am standing with all of you; we’ve all been down these roads before.” And what made the impression on me — what I found so emotional to watch — was him saying, “Regardless of what we’re making together, so much of it is about the personal relationships that we’re about forge together, and the family we’re going to create.” That speaks so much to what our experience was on Rings. It was really beautiful to see that that’s the same atmosphere for which they’re creating this new one.

[Belated thanks for Paulo Pereira for the link!]

New Zealand’s Channel 3 ran a brief story on events in Wellington, and it’s now available on YouTube. The opening mentions the spy photos on TheOneRing.net that I linked to yesterday, including, as the news-reader puts it, pictures of Martin Freeman as “Bilbo Braggins.” Security guards have taken notice, according to the story, and actors now have to go about with hoods and umbrellas to avoid the intrusive telephoto lens. (Of course, with Wellington’s year-round changeable weather, there could be other reasons for those hoods and umbrellas.) It’s difficult for the security to stop high-angle telephoto pics, since there’s a high ridge of public green space sitting right by the Stone Street Studios. That’s where I took my photos of the facility for my book (including one used here).

On the other side of the ridge is the airport, and the “plane-spotters,” who use cell phones to alert the filmmakers when planes take off and land, stand atop the ridge. As fans know, such spotters were used for LOTR, and now they’re obviously in place for The Hobbit.

The story goes on to cover the re-opening of the 1930s Roxy movie theatre, including footage of Peter Jackson in his Rocketeer outfit and of Ian McKellen getting off some quips before officially cutting the ribbon.

Peter Jackson has just launched a Facebook page. So far it contains the official press release stating that The Hobbit has begun shooting and many posts from well-wishers. (At the moment dozens of people are hitting the “like” button per minute.) The “Hobbit Blog” site that I linked yesterday seems to be the official site, according to TheOneRing.net. Unfortunately, Ian McKellen’s blog is called “Hobbit Blog,” which makes confusion between the two seem likely. I hope this proliferation of sites means that we will get some actual details soon.

Prime Minister John Key’s suggestion that labor laws might need to be changed to keep Warner Bros. from taking The Hobbit out of New Zealand have already drawn sharp criticism. Scoop.co.nz has a guest editorial attacking the government and Peter Jackson–who is said to be miffed over being ruled against in a 2005 labor-related lawsuit and is taking this means of getting his own way. Stuff.co.nz has an article in which Council of Trade Union president Hellen Kelly suggests that Warner Bros. might not be demanding such a change, but the government is using the opportunity to re-fashion labor laws to suit itself.

No doubt the labor unions need to watch out for their membership, but these far-fetched claims don’t do the cause much good. I don’t see PJ risking the filmmaking infrastructure that he has poured tens of millions of NZ dollars into (as well as hundreds of jobs of the people employed therein, most of whom are not actors) to get revenge for one lost lawsuit. Such claims don’t help labor’s side.

[Added later the same day:]

The New Zealand Herald has another anti-producers editorial:

Not so long ago, the rest of the country guffawed at Wellington planning to rename itself Wellywood.

Now the whole country seems to have taken leave of its senses, demanding we rename New Zealand “Hobbiton” and elevate the Gnome of the Wairarapa, Sir Peter Jackson, to be our Lord and Master. Have we no sense of shame, or of the ridiculous?

[Thanks to Paulo Pereira for the Scoop link!]

[Later in the day:]

Two more editorials against the government’s bargaining with Warner Bros.: from Pundit.co.nz and a press release by the Green Party.

Posted at NewsTalkZB, a press release from Wingnut, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh’s production company:

“WELLINGTON – Thursday, 21 October 2010

The lifting of the blacklist on The Hobbit does nothing to help the films stay in New Zealand.  The damage inflicted on our film industry by NZ Equity/MEAA is long since done.

You probably have read this news on TheOneRing.net itself. Still, since Xoanon was kind enough to send me the official press release, I’ll pass it along:

We have been spreading unofficial rumors that TheOneRing.net would be presenting a panel at Comic-Con but the official website confirmed it today: At 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 22, in room 7AB founder Calisuri, the incomparable Quickbeam and fan advocate MrCere will present the latest unofficial new about ‘The Hobbit’ movies and everything else there is time for. Guests possible but not promised. If you haven’t heard, returned tickets are now available to the general public from the previously sold out Comic-Con. TORn will also be sharing space with Weta at the Dark Horse booth (#2615) and selling really cool shirts! We hope to see you there.

I was lucky enough to participate in the equivalent panel with these same worthy gentlemen two years ago and thoroughly enjoyed the experience–that and meeting John Howe and signing copies of The Frodo Franchise. I’d love to be there again, whether on the panel or in the audience. ‘Tis not to be this year, though I hope next year there will be official Hobbit hype beginning at Comic-Con, and maybe then I’ll get myself out to San Diego to observe and report.

If you have or can manage to get hold of a ticket, do get in line early for the TORN event. It fills up quickly!

By now you probably have heard that Ian McKellen made a surprise visit to the British Film Institute’s marathon trilogy screening and confirmed that he’ll be back in New Zealand for filming starting in March. He expects to receive a script soon and says he knows who has been cast as Bilbo. (He says “Frodo” by mistake, but it’s clear what he means.) Fan Karl Falconer got a huge scoop by filming Ian with his cell phone. The result, posted on Facebook, shows Ian from a great distance, but the spectator can hear his dulcet tones dispensing information.

(I’m not sure whether you have to be a member of Facebook to get through to the clip, which is a little under 3 minutes long. After clicking on the link at TORN, I was asked to login.)

This is all pretty much what we’ve known and/or suspected was happening. Principal photography has long since been announced as beginning in March. Few things were as certain as that Ian and Andy Serkis would be returning. Peter announced at Comic-Con that in three weeks the script for the first part of The Hobbit would be sent to New Line/Warner Bros. for approval. Now, about four weeks later, it sounds as though the writers met their deadline.

In short, movement toward making The Hobbit a reality is happening as expected, and it’s great to hear the confirmation of all that from Ian’s own mouth! I suspect that very soon we’ll be getting a lot more real news.

Loyal reader Paulo Pereira has alerted me to the fact that Empire magazine has big coverage of The Hobbit in its March issue. Check the image of Gollum on the cover here. It sounds from the online description that anyone who has been keeping up on TheOneRing.net, here, and on other specialist sites will be familiar with quite a bit of what’s in this issue. Still, there’s a new interview with Guillermo Del Toro, and he usually manages to drop in a few new facts. The announcement says the issue will be in stores on Friday, January 30. That’s presumably for the U.K. I don’t know if it comes out on the same day in North America, but I for one will be checking.

Nearly three years to go before the release, but I guess we can all start our collections of Hobbit-related magazines now. I’ve added a new category to deal with them: “The Hobbit in the Media.”