Ian McKellen says filming for the Hobbit to begin in June!

[Nerwen]

Don't panic. They'd do a 2d print as well, I'm sure.

The real danger will be that the makers might get carried away with the whole "ZMOG LOOK EVERYBODY 3D! SEE RANDOM OBJECTS BEING THRUST AT THE CAMERA! WEEEEEE! 3D! IT'S LIKE TOTALLY MINDBLOWINGLY AWESOME" thing, to the detriment of all other aspects.

But I'd hope better of them than that.

[The Might]

I'm a little bit out of date here, since I haven't been following the news around the Hobbit much.

Two films means one is the Hobbit and the other is based on other stories taking place prior to the WotR as they had planned to?

[Mithalwen]

I think they scrubbed that idea and it is merely splitting the Hobbit story so they can extract 2 lots of box office revenue from the fanbase. I suppose htey may well pad out with what Gandalf is up to while away.

I don't see that it needs so much screentime. It is so much shorter and simpler than LOTR it doesn't need 2/3 of the time. So much of the Hobbit is stuff that can be shown on film in an instant but which takes a while to describe in writing. I just wonder if it will hold the audience enough to wait a year for the end.

[Mnemosyne]

Regarding the subject line... maybe not...

McKellen's website has updated so that the date is, once again, more indeterminate.

[The Might]

I don't think a two-part Hobbit would turn out well.
You simply don't have enough going on to keep the story going. Unless you have a big intro to it with stuff like Smaug attacking Erebor or the Battle of Azanulzibar in a prequel film and then the Hobbit.

[Tuor in Gondolin]

I tend to think a two-part Hobbit would work well both
artistically and financially. One of the problems PJ had
with the lotr films was arguing for longer ones, a 2 part
Hobbit could be in the two hour + range each, making
movie theaters very happy by, of course, ensuring more
playing times per screen. And if you put in the White Council
meeting and attacking Dol Guldur there's plenty of material
for two films. Among other seperate scenes you'd have An
Unexpected Party, the trolls, Rivendell, The Goblin King Incident,
wolves glade, eagles aerie, Beorn, the Enchanted Stream, trudge
through the forest plus Bilbo tree climbing, elves partay,
giant spider fight, etc. etc.

A good cutoff point could be Thorin and Co. entering Mirkwood
while the White Council invests Dol Guldur and that conflict begins.

P.S. I do like The Might's ideas above. the one really good of PJ's lotrs (FoTR)
was helped immeasurably by that prequel, and, since Gollum only has
one scene in the book you could bookend appearances at the beginning of Part I
and ending of Part II (with Gollum emerging and vowing to find The Precious
and get Thief Baggins.

P.P.S. A scene with Smaug attacking The Lonely Mountain while someone
recites the early version of the poem would be really cool (although a hot time
for the dwarves).

P.P.P.S. While it rather stretches time and geography (like that would stop PJ) you might even
have Gollum peeking out of the Misty Mountains and watching one of Smaug's strafing runs.

[wilwarin538]

I'm quite excited at the idea of a two parter, I hadn't realised that was the plan!!! Cool.

And the 3D, I think it depends, when it's simply used to add some more depth to the shots it looks really cool once you get used to the glasses, but if it's the type where they have stuff popping out at you all the time then that could be annoying. But usually you have the option to go see it without the 3D (at least at my theatre you do), so if people don't want to they don't have too. I think it would be cool though. I'm terribly excited, I've been waiting for this movie for so long!