Peter Jackson: 'I didn’t know what the hell I was doing' when I made The Hobbit'

[Jay 37,255]

Oscar-winning director admits he was "winging it" and "was making it up as [he] went along" for much of the fantasy trilogys chaotic shoot

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

From what I understand, they had another director, went pretty far into production and then Jackson came in, despite not being involved and not wanting to do it and went ahead with it. Mistake?

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

If only Spielberg had directed them...

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Not even remotely surprised!

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

At least he's willing to admit failure, unlike that other director currently making the news. I'm sure he's still sane and able to direct movies (again, unlike that other director)

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

At least he's willing to admit failure, unlike that other director currently making the news.

J.J. Abrams?

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

At least he's willing to admit failure, unlike that other director currently making the news.

J.J. Abrams?

Not yet.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

JJ is just a director for hire. Unlike PJ and Lucas.

[Gnome in Plaid 219]

Hobbit reboot 2016! (with just Fran and Philippa writing)

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Was it really impossible to delay production for 6 months or a year, allowing PJ the time to properly prepare?

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

Yes.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Once the ball starts rolling....

[A. A. Ron 1,736]

I thought 'The Guardian' wasn't the most trusted source.

By the end, PJ begins to look royally screwed over.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The Guardian is a fine paper. Unlike the Daily Mail!

[Wojo 2,453]

The Daily Mail has nice photos of boobies.

[Incanus 5,713]

The finished product speaks for itself really. Sad that they could not afford to give the director a few more months of prep to fully get his head around the project. But considering how much prep had been done up to that point and actors were cast and waiting to start it would have been a costly venture to sent them back home or keep them in NZ for that period.

But if I remember correctly PJ himself was very keen to start the filming ASAP after recovering from his ulcer that sent him to hospital and recuperatingfor a month. I guess that was just bluster and morale boosting for the crew then.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

So this means that ultimately....PJ is not to blame. It was the studio execs, stifling creativity for the sake of dollars!

[Incanus 5,713]

So this means that ultimately....PJ is not to blame. It was the studio execs, stifling creativity for the sake of dollars!

I still blame PJ for a lot of things. I don't think it all would be radically different if he had some more months to prepare. Same lame excesses and fart jokes would be there, it is PJ after all. And the script would still have those inventions that caused the most trouble to the films.

But considering the juggernaut such 3-film production is PJ can be congratulated to be alive at this point and not buckling under the pressure.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

I still can't quite understand people who are like: "Oh, poor PJ, he didn't have enough time to prepare... Blablabla..."

Sure, I could agree with that, had they stuck to 2 films. But instead, he didn't have enough pre-production time, and came up with the great idea to add another film, basically making the whole endeavour even more difficult for him (of course, if that was the studio's decision only and was forced upon him, then that changes things). So I can't feel sorry for him when he basically brought that on himself (except the ulcer thing, obviously. That was a nasty business)!

[Incanus 5,713]

YES! NO MERCY! BRING OUT THE MANGLER! BRING OUT THE BONE-BREAKER!

[KK 3,307]

Not surprised at all...the films say it all!

[Barnald 365]

I doubt Warner were willing to delay it any further, given that the first Hobbit film was originally scheduled to come out Dec 2011.

If the 3 films thing was Jackson's idea, I suspect it wasn't done because they had all this material (clearly), nor because of money (though this surely appealed to Warner moreso), but simply because he thought - at the time - it would alleviate the burden. "Great, we don't have to do the CGI for Beorn, the spiders, the barrel escape, etc until next year. We have to film the battle, but at least we don't have to do post-production for all the Smaug, Dol Guldur and battle all in the same film". Little did he know it would bring all kinds of problems anyway.

I think at least, had these films had another year pre-production, you would have seen more sets, prosthetics, armour, etc, in spite of how they've justified the substitution of CGI for these things at various points.

Still, I think many of these articles (which couldn't wait to get the knives out about a franchise which apparently no one cares about anymore btw, much like they did with that silly Ian McKellen tennis balls story a couple of years back) ought to bear in mind just how messy TTT and ROTK were. I have read that Jackson took a huge gamble with FOTR, pumping most of his budget into that and leaving much of the other two films unfinished, hoping he would be given additional filming blocks and money should FOTR succeed. I don't know how true this is, but I should say that the insider in question called the CGI Dain thing way before anyone else.

[DreamTheater 131]

Still, I think many of these articles (which couldn't wait to get the knives out about a franchise which apparently no one cares about anymore btw, much like they did with that silly Ian McKellen tennis balls story a couple of years back) ought to bear in mind just how messy TTT and ROTK were. I have read that Jackson took a huge gamble with FOTR, pumping most of his budget into that and leaving much of the other two films unfinished, hoping he would be given additional filming blocks and money should FOTR succeed. I don't know how true this is, but I should say that the insider in question called the CGI Dain thing way before anyone else.

TTT and ROTK messy? Unfinished? Now I've never read the books, but to me at least the films are just as polished and fantastic and compelling as the first one is, I don't think I've ever heard someone state that these films are anything less than full on masterpieces. Again, this comes from someone with celluloid in mind, not paper.

Now the thing about The Hobbit, well that's not suprising. It just doesn't have the same attention to detail as TLOTR had.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

If the 3 films thing was Jackson's idea, I suspect it wasn't done because they had all this material (clearly), nor because of money (though this surely appealed to Warner moreso), but simply because he thought - at the time - it would alleviate the burden. "Great, we don't have to do the CGI for Beorn, the spiders, the barrel escape, etc until next year. We have to film the battle, but at least we don't have to do post-production for all the Smaug, Dol Guldur and battle all in the same film".

I could buy that... if AUJ didn't have about as much CG as the other two films.

[Bofur01 245]

Still, I think many of these articles (which couldn't wait to get the knives out about a franchise which apparently no one cares about anymore btw, much like they did with that silly Ian McKellen tennis balls story a couple of years back) ought to bear in mind just how messy TTT and ROTK were. I have read that Jackson took a huge gamble with FOTR, pumping most of his budget into that and leaving much of the other two films unfinished, hoping he would be given additional filming blocks and money should FOTR succeed. I don't know how true this is, but I should say that the insider in question called the CGI Dain thing way before anyone else.

TTT and ROTK messy? Unfinished? Now I've never read the books, but to me at least the films are just as polished and fantastic and compelling as the first one is, I don't think I've ever heard someone state that these films are anything less than full on masterpieces. Again, this comes from someone with celluloid in mind, not paper.

Now the thing about The Hobbit, well that's not suprising. It just doesn't have the same attention to detail as TLOTR had.

No, he means that when they were shot, PJ poured tonnes of budget into FotR, and shot TTT and RotK as an afterthought, banking on the fact that FotR would succeed and be given extra budget and time for reshoots. I'm pretty sure, somewhere, I heard that TTT and RotK would've been straight to DVD releases, as at least half the effects budget was used on FotR alone. So it was a damned big gamble.

[Barnald 365]

Still, I think many of these articles (which couldn't wait to get the knives out about a franchise which apparently no one cares about anymore btw, much like they did with that silly Ian McKellen tennis balls story a couple of years back) ought to bear in mind just how messy TTT and ROTK were. I have read that Jackson took a huge gamble with FOTR, pumping most of his budget into that and leaving much of the other two films unfinished, hoping he would be given additional filming blocks and money should FOTR succeed. I don't know how true this is, but I should say that the insider in question called the CGI Dain thing way before anyone else.

TTT and ROTK messy? Unfinished? Now I've never read the books, but to me at least the films are just as polished and fantastic and compelling as the first one is, I don't think I've ever heard someone state that these films are anything less than full on masterpieces. Again, this comes from someone with celluloid in mind, not paper.

Now the thing about The Hobbit, well that's not suprising. It just doesn't have the same attention to detail as TLOTR had.

No, he means that when they were shot, PJ poured tonnes of budget into FotR, and shot TTT and RotK as an afterthought, banking on the fact that FotR would succeed and be given extra budget and time for reshoots. I'm pretty sure, somewhere, I heard that TTT and RotK would've been straight to DVD releases, as at least half the effects budget was used on FotR alone. So it was a damned big gamble.

Yes, this was my meaning. That the films turned out as well as they did - perhaps in comparison to DoS and BotFA - is surely testament to many variables, though I suspect them doing so much pre-production and planning on the trilogy in general was a significant part of it. But even then, as someone pointed out on TORN, there were big late changes (like Arwen at Helms Deep, Gandalf and Pippin arriving to save Faramir), because that's just how Jackson rolls.

If the 3 films thing was Jackson's idea, I suspect it wasn't done because they had all this material (clearly), nor because of money (though this surely appealed to Warner moreso), but simply because he thought - at the time - it would alleviate the burden. "Great, we don't have to do the CGI for Beorn, the spiders, the barrel escape, etc until next year. We have to film the battle, but at least we don't have to do post-production for all the Smaug, Dol Guldur and battle all in the same film".

I could buy that... if AUJ didn't have about as much CG as the other two films.

Well yeah, but imagine if it went all the way up to the barrels, and Sauron capturing Gandalf? I'm talking about the sheer workload here. Could they really have done all that in time, given the unfinished look of Azog in AUJ? It would have been some undertaking, and perhaps they could have pulled it off, but I daren't think how it would have all looked in the end. I mean, we can see the unfinished look of the later Smaug scenes in DoS, and some of the CGI in the barrel escape is far from the best. It's fairly apparent that by the time of BotFA they were really struggling, and some scenes had to be jettisoned precisely because the CGI wasn't finished (the chariot race, and probably a good chunk of the battle additions in general).

[SafeUnderHill 205]

[crocodile 7,974]

The Hobbit films are bloated and disappointing, sure. But they are not THAT horrible. I don't see the point of having 1/3 of the material in there. But hey, at least there's tons of footage to choose from in creating personalised abridged cuts.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Very entertaining films!

[Incanus 5,713]

Very entertaining films!

Part time!

[nightscape94 965]

I saw the first one and thought it was okay. Wasn't anywhere on the same level as the LOTR movies, but I liked it well enough. Haven't gotten around to the other two yet.

[Jay 37,255]

Wow fascinating video. That sums it all up!

[KK 3,307]

Oscar-winning director admits he was "winging it" and "was making it up as [he] went along" for much of the fantasy trilogys chaotic shoot

Interesting that they link to their 4 star review in the article.

By the way, the article comes from this segment of the appendices:

Also interesting that JKMSlibrary tweeted the article:

https://twitter.com/JKMSlibrary/status/667699891481636865

Fantastic video! Kudos to the team for including that into the appendices.

It all makes sense, as many of you have already argued. I'm not sure what the motivation was behind avoiding pushing the trilogy off for another year (probably studios), but it really disserviced PJ in the end. And I guess you do have to hand it to him for being able to juggle all of this with barely any prep. These are massive sets, large crews, big pieces, all which he handles on the spot and scene by scene. It takes a great deal of experience to be able to do that, and that's something he has.

If they were given the 2 years of proper prep for this as he took with FOTR, we'd have very different films. That's why we have all these loose pieces in the production (including Shore's score). It's what made FOTR and the other films seem like works with such heart in them. Something you really don't see in these Hobbit films, except for parts of AUJ. Which is a real shame really.

I hope PJ tackles a smaller project next, one which he can aptly plan for and put his heart into.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Poor Peter speaks his mind for the first time and the powers that be interfene!

I don't know what this mysterious Wingnut is, but they are clearly the real power behind the throne.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

They're the Saruman to PJ's old decrepid Theoden!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

We must draw Wingnut out, like poison is drawn from a wound!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

"It is not so dark here."

[A24 4,325]

In the end, does it matter? You all went to see the films, and you will keep doing so until the end of days. It's the same for Star Wars.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I doubt I will go to see every Star Wars movie that comes out.

[A24 4,325]

Most people will, regardless of what they think of it.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Well I saw ROTS in the cinema, even though I knew I would dislike it. I think many did. Like it was a duty, like how you visit an ailing relative in the hospital.

But after TSA Star Wars will no longer be special. Like Marvel.

[A24 4,325]

But the fans will always return hoping that this time director X might do something right.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Well I haven't really been a Star Wars fan for a long time.

[Richard Penna 3,664]

I thought that video and Wingnut's response was refreshingly frank. Although I would't say the video portrayed it as overly negative. Given that they weren't working to storyboards, I agree that it's commendable that they were able to do it on time and to budget. Certainly the things I feel are wrong with the films are things that could be fixed with another few months in post. (i.e. cutting out half the footage)

[A. A. Ron 1,736]

To make me happy, they'd need to make completely new scripts from scratch.

[Red 75]

This makes me feel for Jackson more than I had before. But I'm also relieved and appreciative of his level of honesty and self-realization. That's the key difference between him and Lucas; he can admit when he's out of his element.

[gkgyver 1,645]

Even if you are "winging it", you can avoid things, like making it look like a video game. If you don't have time, you'd think you'd focus on the essentials. Jackson instead chose to focus on the irrelevant battle and stunt shit.