The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ended up being a bit of a divisive film when it came out last December. There were those that loved it for the classic story and sense of visual splendor, while there were also those that found it overly long with pacing that needed some work. I, for one, found it to be another wonderful trip back to Middle Earth that, despite a few flaws, lived up to what I’d hoped the film would be.
For those of us who thoroughly enjoyed it, the news of an extended edition was a most welcome announcement and left us wondering what didn’t quite make it into the final cut of the film that we saw in theaters. Today, via Empire Online and Comic Book Movie, we have a few words from Peter Jackson and co-writers Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh on some of the scenes we’ll be seeing when the extended edition hits shelves later this year.
Here’s just a few of the tidbits that they let us in on:
“You are going to get some serious Dwarvish disrespect of the elves at Rivendell,” says Jackson, echoing what he previously said to us during our Unexpected Journey video interviews.
“You are going to get more of Hobbiton,” says producer / co-writer Philippa Boyens. “We always wanted to wend our way through Hobbiton, but in the end Bilbo has to run out of the door.”
“You are going to get more Goblin Town, and the Great Goblin singing his song,” adds Fran Walsh, Jackson’s other half and fellow screenwriter. “It is a great song, but it was just another delay in terms of moving the story along.”
“A number one hit from the Goblin King,” laughs Jackson. “Barry Humphries is going to rise up the charts.”“We are putting things in the extended cut that are going to play straight into the second film,” explains Jackson, “like this character Girion, who is defending [the city of] Dale using black arrows against Smaug. And the black arrows play a part in an ongoing story, for they are the one thing that can pierce the dragon’s hide.”
“There are also issues with [king of the elves] Thranduil (Lee Pace),” Jackson adds. “We get some of the reason why he and the dwarves had a falling out – to do with these white gems…”
Sounds like there was quite a bit that they had to leave out of the film, making me rather curious as to what the final runtime will be once they’ve made the adjustments. Since The Lord of the Rings extended editions only served to make great films even better, hopefully this new cut of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will do exactly the same, perhaps even swaying some of the naysayers from last year.
Luckily, we only have a few more months of waiting until we find out what’s in store for us as the extended cut is due out about a month before The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits theaters.
Are you excited for the extended cut? What would you like to see added to the movie that we didn’t see in the original cut? Let us know in the comments!
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