"The Hobbit More in the Golden Light of a Fairytale," Peter Jackson Talks About The Hobbit

"We always saw The Hobbit more in the golden light of a fairytale," said The Hobbit Director's Peter Jackson when he was asked to described the latest film adaptation of another J.R.R. Tolkien's novel in the latest issue of Total Film Magazine. "It's more playful. But by the time you get to the end, Tolkien is writing himself into that place where he begin that epic journey of writing Lord of the Rings, which took, as he put it, his life's blood. All those heavier, darker themes which are so prevalent in the later trilogy start to come into play."

The movie "The Hobbit", as we all know, will be released and shown in cinemas worldwide this December 14. It is the prequel story of how the hobbit Bilbo Baggins found the ring that created the epic journey of Frodo, Sam, Legolas, Aragorn and the other hobbits in The Lord of the Rings. Set sixty-years before it, The Hobbit revolves around a different adventure that Bilbo Baggins with Gandalf's decision was put together in the company of thirteen dwarves to help them in their quest to The Lonely Mountain and reclaim a valuable treasure guarded by the dragon Smaug.

Regarding its casting, it was early in October 2010, that the role was given by actor Martin Freeman. However, due to some issues regarding his schedules conflicting due to the current filming of his BBC television series Sherlock. Weeks later though, it was finally confirmed that he had been officially cast to play the role of Bilbo Baggins.

"Despite the various rumours and speculation surrounding this role, there has only ever been one Bilbo Baggins for us," answered Jackson during the casting. "There are a few times in your career when you come across an actor who you know was born to play a role, but that was the case as soon as I met Martin Freeman. He is intelligent, funny, surprising and brave—exactly like Bilbo and I feel incredibly proud to be able to announce that he is our Hobbit."

“What I like about the prequel feel is that we can plant all these scenes that tie into ‘Lord of the Rings, but with a different tone that’s more humorous, more whimsical,” Jackson answered in an interview with the Daily News in Wellington. “This is the film where Bilbo finds the ring, gets the ring. And the truth is not a lot happens with the ring in these stories, nor should it, because there are three other movies we made that deal with that particular topic.”

It was also stated in the same article, how Jackson at first was hesitant to direct the installment of The Hobbit a decade after he had done filming J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He told Daily News how "he liked the idea of a studio taking the project to another producer even less." On the other hand, though, when his supposed successor Guillermo del Toro dropped the offer of being the director, he knew right then and there that he was the one destined to be behind the camera for this movie.

“It just would’ve felt wrong, for sentimental reasons more than anything, for someone else to do ‘The Hobbit’ somewhere else in the world,” he said.

Here's a video from Peter Jackson, The Hobbit - Production Diaries, talking about the movie and giving everyone a sneak peek during its filming:

Sources: NY DailyNews | MovieWeb