When the Extended Editions of The Lord of the Rings movies came out, it made sense. The original books were dense with material that could never be translated to the screen, and even what could be translated had to be trimmed to keep the movies moving and coming in under a crazy running time. The Extended Editions are all better than the theatrical, with more breathing room and detail and character moments. They make sense.
But what about for the trilogy of The Hobbit movies? The book - a slim children's tome - has already been dragged out to three films. Now Movies.com has learned that there will be an Extended Edition of at least the first movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, hitting shelves next year. The Extended Edition will come out to coincide with the release of the second movie, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
What the heck is going to be in this Extended Edition? Once Peter Jackson got a third movie out of the book I was sure we would be seeing just about everything filmed up on screen. Assuming the films are two hours long each, that's six hours out of a book that probably takes less time than that to read cover to cover. How much material will be in the Extended Editions? Will each film get one? Will these be real Extended Editions, like Lord of the Rings, or just marketing-mandated phony director's cuts?
I hope this is all artistically motivated (he said naively).
About the Author: A ten year veteran of writing for the web, Devin has built a reputation as a loud, uncompromising and honest voice – sometimes to the chagrin of his readers, but usually to their delight.
