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Don't get too excited, I've read that he's looking at doing The Phantom next and that would happen over 2007-08
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Excited? Nah.....
After waiting endless years for someone to do a film adaptation and then living through the flawed attempt of Bakshi and the even worse Rankin Bass, I am probably more forgiving of PJ than others might be. PJ's films were a long way from perfect but, in my mind, they were also a considerable distance from "bad", despite the pain of seeing Frodo and Faramir mangled. I found them visually stunning in parts and certain characters like Bilbo and Gandalf came close to how I've always envisioned them.
Overall, however, I would say that I am more disappointed than excited regarding The Hobbit. Whoever manages to pull the movie off (if anyone does), it looks as if we'll be waiting a long time for this to happen. My gut feeling right now is that, if what the papers are reporting is correct, New Line will not get its act together and that the rights will eventually revert back to Zaentz/MGM. At that point it's likely to go to PJ, but who knows for sure?
So many of these decisions and arguments seem to be tied up with money. Zaentz, like PJ, was suing New Line because he said they reneged on their contract with him and that they owed him another 20 million. So he would probably love to see the film rights come slipping back out of New Line's grip.
Raimi just doesn't excite me. I guess he'd be "competent" but that's about all. I don't think he'd have any more feel for "faerie" than PJ had. The advantage of having PJ do the film is that we would likely get Ian McKellen, WETA, and hopefully the same artistic crew of Lee and Howe. However, the Hobbit we get would not be the book, which is essentially a children's story but one that is richly layered with meaning by the time we reach the ending scenes. Instead, we'd get an adult prelude, possibly two, to the Lord of the Rings movie.
I know a lot of people prefer an "adult" Hobbit, but I would honestly love to see the original children's tale that Tolkien crafted. Otherwise, so much of the charm of the story will be lost. I doubt
anyone is going to make that children's tale -- whether PJ or anyone else. So I'll just sit back and wait and see what happens. And, yes, whoever makes it, and whatever angle they take, I will likely go see it. So I am hoping that something comes through eventually.