Hobbit Problems for PJ to Solve
Even though The Hobbit is a simpler book than The Lord of the Rings, it comes with its own set of unique storytelling challenges. Josh Tyler at Cinema Blend takes a look at four of the biggest possible issues that Peter Jackson is going to have to tackle in the Hobbit.
What do you think? How would you resolve some of these?
11 Comments
I think that maybe for Riddles in the Dark, where it is a dark scene, I would start in the dark, and make a light gradually appear, so it doesn’t have too much light, but you can see what’s going on. For the other problems, I would not want to be PJ.
Throughout the other half of Part 2 they’ll have to develop Bard to a semi-main carachter. It will be tricky if Bard isn’t introduced until when the company arrives to laketown, but then they’ll just have to make him familiar to the audience.
For the Riddles in the Dark they could use Sting as a light source throughout the whole scene. I believe in the book it states that it didn’t shine brightly but it DID glimmer due to the presence of orcs not far away … so they might be able to use that.
With regards to the abscence of female characters, I never thought about it until now! I just realised that it’s true that there isn’t any female character and it i’ll be interesting how PJ and co will tackle the issue…
I think I’m mostly reiterrating what people have said but…
1. When Bilbo and the dwarves first enter Dale introduce Bard, have him watch them and possibly even talk to Bilbo, and when they leave have him make comments so we can get to know him better and respect him for the battle of Smaug.
2. Having the dwarves be generally unlikeable is a character trait you can use to your advantage. Not all of the dwarves were cranky towards Bilbo, just mostly Thorin. Balin had become affectionate of Bilbo by the time they came to the dragon cave and followed him somewhat down the passage way. They weren’t all nasty to him.
3. Have gollum’s eyes be two light points, “and he suddenly saw the pale lamp like eyes sticking out at him†“bilbo could see his eyes coming towards him,†this should indicate that there is at least some light source or Gollum’s eyes are a light source. Since the goblins are close, have sting be a faint light point as well.
4. Having no women is not a problem, it’s just a problem because society is politically correct and overly feminist.
For Riddles in the Dark I agree with RenFaire: you can start out pitch black, then just seeing Gollum’s eyes, and then slowly add a bit more light to the scene (just enough for the audience to understand what’s going on). But I think the problem with the light might be a minor one compared to the fact that there isn’t much “going on” in this scene. I mean, they’re asking and guessing riddles, and in the book it becomes quite an interesting and exciting scene because you can read what goes through their minds and try to guess the riddles yourself before finding out whether Gollum/Bilbo will get the right answer. In the movie, I’m guessing it’s all going to happen much faster and, because of that, maybe you won’t be able to get the kind of suspense that Tolkien created.
As for Bard… didn’t they build up Haldir quite a bit so that his death would mark the horrors of battle and war at Helms Deep? Well, I think PJ could probably work out something similar for Bard to make the audience care for him.
Finally, the other two I don’t see as actual problems. I understand that people might complain about e.g. the absence of women… but I can’t see a nice way around it, nor do I think it is needed.
In my town’s production of The Hobbit (which I was in), we were introduced to Bard when the dwarves got to Laketown. Maybe that’s a solution? He was a semi-main character.
Yeah, those are tricksy problems. I think the dark is the least of them, though. As long as he establishes that Bilbo can’t see anything, I don’t think the audience will mind if we can.
I really think the dwarves are going to be the biggest problem. That’s why the book wasn’t particularly exciting for me. But, with the actors who’ve already been cast, it seems like PJ has a plan to fix the general annoyingness of dwarves in the book.
As for the Bard/ Smaug and lack of females problems, I think they can all be fixed in the same way. PJ did a good job with slightly expanding some characters’ roles in LOTR so that they seemed more important, and that could work well with Bard. Plus, we can have female characters pulled into his plot. Unfortunately, the first half doesn’t really create many opportunities for bringing anything like that in without making substantial plot changes. I don’t think it’s so much that we are trying to be PC as not wanting to make this into a movie aimed at boys…the point of making a movie is to draw in as many people as possible. That means that the first half, if left the way it is, will have to be spectacular in action and plotline to keep people interested. But, it would be better to have no women at all than a half-baked weak female character.
1. As many have already said, I believe this can be easily solved by introducing Bard when the company arrive in Lake-town, and keeping him there as this aragornish hero by expanding his role. I wouldn’t have a problem with that; I’m aware it would be awfully anti-climatic on screen if someone noone ever saw before suddenly popped up and killed Smaug 🙂
Perhaps the author likes hyperboles, but really- ‘hunderds of miles from Erebor’? Hello? It’s Lake-town we’re speaking about, Smaug wasn’t one of the fell beasts that died in Mount Doom… :/
2. dwarves unlikeable… well, not much can be done about that. Apart from Bard, there won’t be any fangirl-attracting Boromirs and Aragorns and Éomers around this time, which will undoubtedly cost the movie a part of the popularity LotR had. Some can surely be appeased by the presence of the elves, though 😛
3. dark… I for one wouldn’t object to re-introduction of the cave we first saw Gollum in in FotR. The small beam of light that filters there through a small crack above could well provide the necesary illumination. There are worse cases of canon bending than this one…
4. I can survive the movie with just background-women, but I strongly disagree with Starofdunedain’s remark about feminized society.
I would be more or less Ok with the scriptwriters adding a woman scene or two as well… Unless PJ has Arwen doing Gandalf’s job of keeping the three trolls arguing, I won’t mind 😉
Re: 4, I don’t think I agree with the suggestion that women might not go and see the film if there are no female characters, but people are going to have a problem with it on principle.
One excellent suggestion I heard (from my mother, actually) was to have Smaug voiced by a woman – she suggested Dame Judi Dench. Then you have a very important, noticable and powerful female character, and it won’t make a whole lot of difference to the character, if played right.
Of course, you’ll then get flack thrown around because the only female character is the villain, therefore The Hobbit is saying all women are evil/the only female character is a dragon, therefore The Hobbit is saying all women are greedy and only interested in sparkly things/etc. But you’re going to get idiots no matter what you do, really.
I think it’s going to be hard to make the spiders and flies scene as good as it is in the books. I think Peter could do it a little better by making the spiders scarier than he did Shelob. Scary as she is, she’s like a giant tarantula.
It could also be hard to indicate all that is going through Bilbo’s head as he’s going into the mountain and then into Smaug’s cave. They could have him talking as if he’s thinking and then show it’s just him thinking by having a dwarf tell him something and shattering the train of thought.
The barrel in the river scene could prove hard too, showing that Bilbo only then realises he has to get in a barrel too.
I agree about the lack of feminine characters; this could easily be solved by casting me in the wood elf scenes as a simple extra! I know several eager volunteers!!!