After the success of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, it was perhaps inevitable that The Hobbit too would be adapted into film. However, plans for an adaptation were not even announced until four years after The Return of the King, and a number of obstacles remained. However, after years of languishing in pre-production for some time, The Hobbit was green-lit in October 2010 and are steadily moving towards principle photography in early 2011.
Obviously, since the films have not been released yet, there is only so much that can be commented on from a purist perspective. However, the filmmakers, in particular Executive Producer Peter Jackson (PJ) and Writer/Director Guillermo del Toro (GDT), have made a number of statements outlining various facts about how the films are being made. Among these are reflected several changes to the story as told in the book. As with the Lord of the Rings section, the following pages presuppose the purist criteria for faithfulness and go from there.
- What We’ve Been Told: a running list of changes that have been announced and their ramifications.
- My Prediction: my thoughts (from early 2009) about whether The Hobbit will be a faithful adaptation.
