How will The Hobbit differ from LOTR?

Posted by CB Droege

Peter Jackson has acknowledged that his upcoming Hobbit movies will have a vastly different mood than  previous films set in Middle Earth.

"The Hobbit is very much a children's book and The Lord of the Rings is something else; it's not really aimed at children at all," the acclaimed director told Total Film.

How will The Hobbit differ from LOTR?"I realized the characters of the dwarves are the difference. Their energy and disdain of anything politically correct brings a new kind of spirit to it."

Jackson apparently feels this spirit significantly changes the way the movie has to be approached, which also makes it an interesting challenge for the veteran filmmaker.

Frankly, my expectation was that the film would be a more mature version of the tale told in the novel so as to match the first three films in the franchise - but this seems not to be the case.

Jackson will obviously attempt to maintain the immature levity of the dwarves, inevitably providing the film with a more childish hue to balance against the somber LOTR trilogy. According to Jackson, "The dwarves give it a kind of childish, comedic quality that gives us a very different tone from The Lord of the Rings."

A further consideration for the production was the sheer variety of characters. The novel follows thirteen dwarves, a wizard, and a hobbit. Fifteen characters is quite a lot for a single film to successfully capture and portray.

"I imagined 13 guys with long hair and beards and I thought, 'How are we ever going to know which dwarf is which? It's an ensemble from hell really," he said.

Despite these hurdles, Jackson is confident that he’s found the right ways to fit the film sinto the Middle Earth he’s already created, saying "I want it to seem like we've gone back on location into Middle-earth; that these two movies feel like they belong at the beginning of the other three. We're the same filmmakers going into the same world."

The official synopsis for the film is thus:



