The Hobbit (novel)/Trivia

The Hobbit (book)

Breakthrough Hit: Made JRR Tolkien one of the most famous authors of all time, leading into his Magnum Opus: The Lord of the Rings
What Could Have Been: The History of the Hobbit is full of these. For example, the first draft sets the story in the time of The Silmarillion, Bilbo mentions China at one point, and Beorn was originally called Medwed (Russian for "bear"). Gandalf's name was originally to be "Bladorthin". And Thorin's name was originally to be "Gandalf".

The Hobbit (movie)

Development Hell: Mother of Zod. Financing and copyright problems that caused the director to leave the project gave way to union problems that could potentially have taken the production out of New Zealand entirely. It only just got greenlit at the end of 2010 after the whole financial mess was sorted out and Jackson stepped up to direct. Thankfully, the fire at Weta studios didn't cause any major problems.
Peter Jackson was hospitalized in January 2011 for a perforated stomach ulcer, which just so happened to be one of the contributing causes of Tolkien's death. Luckily, it was caught in time and surgery went smoothly, with the only impact on production being pushing back principal photography by a month so Jackson could recover before putting himself under three more years of constant stress.
Even prior to MGM's money woes and the Tolkien estate's lawsuit in 2008, there was Peter Jackson's legal snit with New Line Cinema (the distributors of The Lord of the Rings). A lawsuit Jackson felt was minor and unlikely to stop him filming The Hobbit right after King Kong led to New Line's leadership declaring Peter Jackson would never direct another film for them. They changed their tune after an epic series of box-office flops, but not before it was too late for the company as an independent entity.
Also, Martin Freeman, the actor they wanted as Bilbo, would be in the middle of filming the second series of Sherlock right in the middle of The Hobbit's production time. It was thought that he would have to give up one or the other, but fortunately they managed to arrange filming so that he could still do both.
Hey, It's That Guy!: It's going to be a long list...
- To British viewers: Bofur is the dad from Millions!
  - And also terrified people as Jekyll.
- Bilbo is Arthur Dent, or, alternately, Dr. John Watson.
- Kili is a Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire.
- Thorin Oakenshield is a BAMF medieval villain/British spy/British commando/Nazi spy.
- Both Smaug and the Necromancer are voiced by Sherlock Holmes, which is also a case of I Want You to Meet An Old Friend of Mine (see below).
- The Lake Master is Gordon Gordon Wyatt.
- The King of the Mirkwood Elves (a.k.a. the father of Legolas) is Ned the Pie-maker
- Balin is Inspector Rebus.
- Dwalin is Dante, Lazarevic, Cutter, and Mikhail Novakovich. If you're a Marvel fan, you may also know him as the voice of Loki.
- Nori is the illfated John-Nicholas.
- Radagast the Brown is the Seventh Doctor.
I Want You to Meet An Old Friend of Mine: Martin Freeman's costar Benedict Cumberbatch from the acclaimed show Sherlock is slated to voice Smaug the dragon and the Necromancer. One can already imagine Smaug and Bilbo solving crimes in Middle Earth.
The Other Marty: Dean O'Gorman replaced Rob Kazinsky as Fíli early on in filming, due to problems with the latter's health. Considering all the makeup, it's not hard to imagine that Kazinsky might still be seen in some shots of the finished film, where his face isn't clearly visible. Or even if it is.
Putting the Band Back Together: A meta-example, with Peter Jackson gradually recruiting back former Lord of the Rings castmembers (including those who were initially reluctant to spend another several years in New Zealand doing nothing but Tolkien all day and night). It's... bittersweet, especially for the actors whose characters Jackson couldn't shoehorn into the plot of The Hobbit.

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