TIL The Hobbit trilogy wasn't all Jackson's fault

[tanithryudo]

Apparently PJ had only intended 2 movies. There wasn't supposed to be any love triangle with Tauriel.

The studio pretty much gave PJ no time for pre-plotting before demanding they start filming, then stepped in and demanded 3 films at the proverbial last minute, and also pretty much overrode a lot of the plotting and cutting.

And as comics have taught us, editorial plot mandates are all inevitably fails. *sigh*

Comments

[cashew]

Even so, the planned two movies is still a little much for a book of Hobbit's length. It's probably more suited for one movie. PJ is still primarily to blame, I would say.

[tanithryudo]

No I think it would've worked with 2 parts. There were two major events in the story which would've translated well to cinema - the death of Smaug and the Battle of Five Armies.

Ironically, having both in the same film might not have worked, since a lot of the audience was coming into this with expectations of LOTR tie in so they can't downplay the war. And you obviously can't downplay the dragon because - dragon.

They should've had a decent length film that squeezed everything from the current movie 1 through the prologue of movie 3 - up to the death of Smaug as the first movie. Then a second shorter movie for the rest of BOFA, plus add in a proper epilogue (funeral for Thorin, the Lords of the North putting aside their differences and coming together, maybe a teaser of Saruman going dark side).