The cultural impact of Peter Jackson's big screen Middle-earth franchise is unquestionable, and there are thousands upon thousands of fans who will be deeply saddened by its conclusion with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. But what will the people who made The Hobbit movies miss most about that experience? To answer that question we have this brand new featurette:
With The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies set to finally be released in theaters tomorrow, the folks over at IMAX have cut together a new video that sees Peter Jackson, Lee Pace, Evangeline Lilly and Luke Evans discuss exactly what it is they will miss most about the experience of filming The Hobbit trilogy. As you might expect, it's a good mix of answers, but at the end of it all it is pretty incredible what kind of an impact making these movies had on their lives.
When you really think about it, it's actually not that hard to think of why making these movies was such a meaningful and incredible experience for the actors and filmmakers responsible for the making of both the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. After all, they were all made on an island distanced from the rest of the world in the south Pacific Ocean, and so many practical sets were created in the natural landscape that it basically allowed New Zealand to become Middle-earth to a certain extent. Add in fact that you are regularly working around the hundreds of people who are constantly walking around in orc, elf and dwarf costumes and it feels like you've come to live in a fantasy world. And the reason I know this is true is because of my own personal time on the set.
There's a very good chance that we will never see another entry in this franchise thanks to the unfortunate conflict that exists between the Tolkien estate and the people at MGM and New Line, which means that most of the things being missed in this featurette may never be relived. The good news, though, is that Evangeline Lilly could actually go to a Peter Jackson Middle-earth set once per month every month if she wanted to - provided she would be willing to pay the extreme expense of a flight to New Zealand. The Hobbiton movie set that was originally built for the Lord of the Rings movies was refurbished as a permanent location when Peter Jackson and his crew were shooting The Hobbit, and there are actually guided tours of the set presently given to die-hard fans who are willing and able to make the trip. Now all someone has to do is build a transporter and set up a transporter right outside so that everyone can have a chance to visit.
What will you miss most about the Middle-earth movies and the Hobbit franchise? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
