Barnald

Kind of funny that Jackson made that remark about what they really need in future is the orchestra on set. Perhaps a sly reference to issues with scoring The Hobbit? In any case, it's great to see that they didn't forget Howard.

Indeed, McKellen probably knows he's going to be working with WB again at some point, whereas Callen won't. Moreover, he was more likely to be one of the victims of interference (the studio are hardly likely to tell Jackson to rail back on Gandalf are they?) Also, what would Callen have to gain from seemingly lying at this point in this life?

As I've said before, given what must have been facing them in terms of the post-production on a two-movie AUJ, I actually think Jackson may have pitched the idea out of sheer pragmatism. When you see how late they were motion-capping Azog, I can't see how they would have got all the early DoS big CGI set pieces (Beorn, spiders, barrel race) done in time. A short-sighted move perhaps in terms of overall planning, but perhaps one of sheer desperation, because Warner Bros wouldn't have wanted to delay it again (after all, they didn't when Jackson had his stomach ulcer, which probably tells you something).

I thought the only really notable bit of her documentary was the interviews with Mark Callen, who (IIRC) made it pretty clear that the studio were getting involved in things, particularly concerning the role of the Dwarves (after the first film, I can well imagine studio notes like 'less Dwarves beyond the important ones', 'more Elves', 'less Radagast' being passed to Jackson).

Very interesting thread here: To be honest it's no surprise to me whatsoever. Those BTS extras never tell the whole story, however 'frank' they seem. We've had rumblings from actors down the years (not just Lily), and it's just common sense really to think a massive studio like WB are going to be more hands-on when they have hundreds of millions staked on the project. Of course some misgivings will still rest on Jackson, but there is obviously more to this story than we know.

I think if someone were to somehow leak that original Azanulbizar flashback piece it would help the world get through everything going on right now.

Yeah, the only real unknowns were Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, and perhaps some of the Australian/New Zealand talent, though obviously you'd have been more familiar with the likes of Miranda Otto, David Wenham and John Noble if you were from those parts.

Lol

Given the differences between the film score and the OST in the case of AUJ, they'll have to take a different approach with that at least.

At least the 5 months will give Mr Shore plenty of time to score episodes 1 and 2. As for the rest, well we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. While there's still hope, I'll cling desperately to it.

It's interesting that the scenes of Legolas hopping on the Dwarves' heads was filmed in early June 2012. Is it safe then to say that Jackson hadn't yet decided to move to 3 films? Then again, I guess it made sense to film as much as possible in any case. I recall the news coming out just before or after SDCC I think, so presumably he must have been giving it serious thought by late June.

My own belief is that Jackson was ultimately compelled to go with three films (and I'm not saying this was his only reason, just perhaps the most pressing) because he had grave concerns over the projected film one (of two) being completed on time. If you think that by around June 2012 they decided to re-do Azog entirely (I think Manu Bennett was posting about mo-capping stuff as late as July/early August), and yet probably still had to animate massive CGI sequences - Beorn, Mirkwood/Spiders, the barrel chase, Gandalf/Necromancer - I just don't see how they could have done it in time. The production hadn't exactly been smooth given the delay caused by Jackson's ulcer, and I'm not wholly convinced that they'd filmed enough in that first block to cover three films (if anything, they needed far more time here, given a good chunk of BOFA hadn't been shot, plus they were probably thinking of two three-hour films plus 45-minute or more EE's). But moving to three films probably made sense to Jackson, because it would - at least in the short term - ease the pressure on his crew, and I'm sure he thought Warner Bros would lap up the idea if he could sell it to them. And obviously, I doubt he was going to stress to them that they were behind schedule, so he probably felt it best to come up with the editorial/footage argument. I should add that I'm ultimately happy with the decision, because I love AUJ, and the climax is one of the reasons why. The climax of the two-film version always struck me as sounding a bit iffy, not least since I'm not a big fan of sudden cliffhanger endings (which we would eventually get with DoS). But then ending AUJ there, there was always going to be too much left for one sequel, and I get the idea of leaving Smaug's fate up in the air for film three, even if that's something I did change for my own edit. I think the antagonists argument is a little unfair, given that Smaug aside, the book barely has one. And if you take Azog as the book's Bolg - which he essentially is for the purposes of being the non-Smaug antagonist - well, he's an Orc, how much depth can he have? Physical menace who is hellbent on destruction, sounds about right to me. I guess they tried to give him a little depth with the direct revenge and pact with the Necromancer arc, as well as showing him to be a decent tactician of sorts, but there's only so much you can do with an Orc. That said, I grant that I'd have liked the Great Goblin to be a bit more menacing, per some of the original designs, yet for that to work you'd almost certainly have to omit the songs and not use Barry Humphries.

BB's videos were a godsend when I was doing my own edits last year, I'd have been lost without them. Thank Christ I did it then rather than now.

I still might not necessarily watch it, but at least then I could watch it blindfolded.