The Hobbit - Better than Ever - The UpStream

There have been a lot of rumors about the upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel films, mostly because Peter Jackson has seemingly refused to talk about it. The good news is, at the premiere for The Lovely Bones, he was asked some questions, and he actually answered them! Time for some updates.

The first rumor put to death - 3D. The Internets bring this one up every few months, and Jackson ended it swiftly.

"The Hobbit will not be filmed in 3D, despite the current vogue for the technology in the movie industry... Guillermo wants to shoot in 35mm, old-fashioned film, which suits me, because he wants to keep it in the same space as the original trilogy."

Rumor 2 - del Toro would make the films dark. Although Guillermo del Toro is famous for his dark films, such as the Hellboy films, Jackson promised that he is still writing it in the style of the original trilogy. "We're writing the screenplays with him (del Toro), so in terms of the script, there is continuity." This is very good news, because in some interviews, del Toro had suggested that these films would be in his usual style, which would not really fit either the story or the existing film family.

"We're writing Ian McKellen's dialogue just the same as we did in Lord Of The Rings. But Guillermo, being the director, will obviously take the script and interpret that and shoot his film. So that'll be interesting to see... That's actually the reason I wanted him to do it. I felt like I'd be trying to compete with myself and deliberately do things differently, which is not the way I want to work. I want it to be natural."

So, it is possible that it could go a little dark, but Jackson is trying to keep the writing in the same style as the originals. I look forward to seeing how it all goes when the first film premiers in December of 2011. Are you guys looking forward to the films?