The Hobbit gets green-light and announces February start

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I like the part where it says Ori was "another Dwarf who fights the infamous dragon, Smaug".

Despair!

[Tuor in Gondolin]

Originally Posted by Inziladun
I like the part where it says Ori was "another Dwarf who fights the infamous dragon, Smaug".

What the h*ll!

And no doubt you can sat goodbye to nuances such as
one of Tolkien's best written bits in The Hobbit wnere Bilbo
goes alone in to confront Smaug.

It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was
the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened
afterwards were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in
the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.

Also see Tom Shippey's analysis in J.R.R. Tolkien.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Lommy

Despair!

Despair not! That's just really lazy reporting. The article Zil's linking to regurgitates another article (posted on The One Ring.net, though I'm sure where it comes from originally) which in turn is based on statements by Jackson and the studio executives.

Originally Posted by The first article

Newcomer, Adam Brown will play Ori, another of the Dwarf Company which sets out to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the infamous dragon, Smaug.

A bit different, no?

[Nerwen]

I mean, you have to remember that a lot of entertainment journalism is just one big game of "Chinese Whispers", further complicated by bluffing.

[doug*platypus]

Merry Christmas to you all! Browsing my favourite news website down here in Aotearoa (New Zealand), I chanced upon this...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...workers-rights

It seems that this movie... sorry... these movies are embroiled in the depths of more prolonged controversy, and may well live in infamy, at least in the minds of some, for reasons other than non-canonical travesties!

[Mister Underhill]

It is crazy -- and more than a little scary -- the sheer scale that these modern "vertically integrated" conglomerates operate on. In this case, the union leadership played right into WB's hands. You don't whip up a labor action on a film until after the studio has already committed and started spending significant money, and after they've already started shooting. That's page one of the union playbook. If I were the conspiracy-minded type, I'd be tempted to wonder if this was only gross incompetence... or something even more insidious.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

It is crazy -- and more than a little scary -- the sheer scale that these modern "vertically integrated" conglomerates operate on. In this case, the union leadership played right into WB's hands. You don't whip up a labor action on a film until after they studio has already committed and started spending significant money, and after they've already started shooting. That's page one of the union playbook. If I were the conspiracy-minded type, I'd be tempted to wonder if this was only gross incompetence... or something even more insidious.

Well, I'm not conspiracy-minded, so I doubt this was all a plot to ensure there'd be no union trouble once filming started, if that's what you mean. I think more likely they just jumped the gun, and, perhaps naively, didn't allow enough for the relative size of Warner Brothers vs the New Zealand economy.

Mind you, I did think much of the coverage of the original dispute was peculiarly biased in Jackson's and WB's favour– since it didn't in fact seem to me that the unions were making outrageous demands.