EW offers look at sordid state of "The Hobbit"

With this being from Entertainment Weekly, you can guess that it's not exactly the most profound piece of journalism penned to date, but the new piece about "The Hobbit" by Benjamin Svetkey does offer a pretty nifty summary of the story so far.

And, of course, none of it is pretty. I won't swipe the whole thing, which would be rather rude, but here are a few of the highlights (or, perhaps more accurately, lowlights):

On the hopeful side, EW reminds readers that, after months of publicly calling director Peter Jackson just about every bad name he could muster, New Line chief Bob Shaye made this rather remarkable turnaround to the L.A. Times in August: ''Notwithstanding our personal quarrels. Ireally respect and admire Peter and would love for him to be creatively involved in some way in The Hobbit.''

Another sign that some real progess toward having Jackson involved in "The Hobbit" is that the courts are taking real action with his suit against New Line to have the books from the three "Rings" movies audited. Last month the company was fined $125,000 for failing to provide requested accounting documents, and, EW states with no further sourcing: even in the weeks before that ruling, there were signs that New Line's hard line was beginning to buckle.

Even if the two sides facing off over what, after all, is a children's movie manage to stop acting like tempermental children, there are of course several other obstacles, mainly time. At some future date which EW didn't specify, the producer Saul Zaentz, who had a hand in that rather silly animated "Lord of the Rings" flick from the '70s, will regain the rights he once had to "The Hobbit." New Line could, of course, still buy it back from him, but that would just add another ugly wrinkle to this already protracted tale.

Jackson and his creative partner, Fran Walsh, have made rumblings about actually making two "Hobbit" movies, one based on the book and another fleshing out notes from J.R.R. Tolkein to bridge the gap between "The Hobbit" and the "Rings" books, which take place some 60 years in the future.

But, as EW points out, the biggest enemy of even one "Hobbit" flick may be Jackson's schedule. He's already about to start shooting "The Lovely Bones" (the next book on my reading list), and is then already committed to direct an installment in the coming "Tintin" trilogy.

Even if this means he's only involved with "The Hobbit" as an executive producer, with another director (please, after watching the simply excremental "Spidey 3," don't let it be Sam Raimi!!), there are signs a big decision that will let this finally move forward may be coming soon. Since this story has already lasted a lot longer than Bilbo's quest to separate Smaug from his ill-gotten bounty, we can only hope so. You can read all of the EW article here.


Hope for a "Serenity 2"?

This glimmer, and that's really all I can it, comes from "Firefly" and "Serenity" star Alan Tudyk, via the fine folks at Moviehole.

Tudyk, a k a Serenity pilot Wash, told Moviehole that, due to how well both editions of "Serenity" have been selling on DVD, there is indeed "talk" about doing a sequel, but he didn't add any other specifics.

“They had to put [the new DVD] out because they’ve been selling out of the other one and so Universal’s like ‘So, let’s do another one.’ And now ... there’s now a chance there’s going to be another movie,” Tudyk told Moviehole.

There are several reasons why this would make a tremendous amount of sense. First of all, if made for a reasonable budget, any new "Serenity" movie would have a built-in and tremendously loyal fan base already in place to help recoup the studio's investment. And secondly, if this, as is most likely to be the case, goes directly to DVD, the money would be even easier to recoup.

As for Tudyk's involvement, anyone who's seen "Serenity" (and who in the world hasn't?) knows it would be hard for him to be too involved, unless the movie turned out to be a prequel of sorts (if you don't know why or can't figure it out, you won't hear it from me.) Whether or not he gets to be involved or not, I'm sure all fans of "Firefly" and "Serenity" will join me in giving even the idea of another flick a hearty huzzah. You can read all of Moviehole's piece here.

Friday trailer two-fer

These two YouTube clips are of wildly varying importance, so I'll start with the big one first. It is, as far as I can tell, the first trailer for Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd," and it looks about as good as I could have possibly imagined. In it, you get to see Johnny Depp croon and Helena Bonham Carter swoon, and you even get a glimpse of Borat.


Next comes an appropriately silly teaser for Will Ferrell's next flick, "Semi-Pro." With a promising cast that includes Ferrell, Jackie Earle Haley, Andre "3000" Benjamin, Will Arnett, Maura Tierney (where has she been?), Woody Harrelson and Rob Cordry, I'm relatively optomistic that this flick about a semi-pro basketball team from Flint, Mich., (hopefully filmed in the rather dilapated city), will be very funny. Be warned: The entire clip focuses on Ferrell's rather hairy body, so if you don't to see that just say no. Peace out.