Yesterday Variety posted a story, “Pros pick best places for filmmaking.” A few years ago, it was almost a given that New Zealand would be on the list. I was surprised and a bit disappointed not to see it there. Naturally for cities, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, and some others were chosen. The foreign choices included Morocco for deserts. Fair enough, there aren’t any really extensive sand deserts in New Zealand. Further afield, Madrid, Barcelona, and the Canary Islands are favorites for their coastlines, high mountains, deserts scenery, and architecturally interesting cities. That’s where I guess I’d expect New Zealand to be most competitive.

For “Best Production Resources,” Sydney, Toronto, and Montreal were picked. (I briefly described Fox Studios Australia, the biggest Sydney facility, on pages 337-8 in The Frodo Franchise.)

Without new Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia releases to display the beauties of the country’s landscapes, perhaps the thought of filming there has faded from filmmakers’ memories. True, huge productions have been based partly in the Wellington facilities built by Peter Jackson and his partners, but they’ve been using Weta Digital’s highly sophisticated special-effects capabilities: Avatar and Steven Spielberg’s Tintin movie. Between those and The Lovely Bones (which was partly shot in Pennsylvania), Weta is not in a position to take on every job offered. Besides, the Cameron and Spielberg films presumably won’t show off the New Zealand landscape much, if at all.

Perhaps The Hobbit will remind filmmakers why a few years ago everyone was aspiring to shoot in New Zealand.

[Nov 5: Variety has a brief story about how U.S. films are not shooting in Australia as much as they used to. The author notes that New Zealand is doing better, but the three titles mentioned–Tintin, Lovely Bones, District 9–are all Peter Jackson-produced items.]

Genevieve Valentine has posted a review of the “Behind the Music” panel that was held in the wake of the live performances of the Fellowship score at Radio City Music Hall. The presenters included David Salo, who talked about how he was hired to act as “Tolkien linguist” for the films. (Readers of The Frodo Franchise will be familiar with that process, which is described on pp. 95-96, including a quotation from a message from John Howe to David–who was one of my interviewees.)

There was also a documentary on Howard Shore’s creative process, made by Elizabeth Cotnoir, and a dialogue between Doug Adams and Shore himself. Doug’s book, The Music of The Lord of the Rings, seems to be approaching publication at a maddeningly slow pace. It’s in the layout stage, which is probably pretty complicated for a book like this one, which I imagine contains musical extracts and film frames. Check out his website for an update and for future news.

Thanks to David Ivory for sending me this link!

Somehow I have gotten onto the mailing list for Paramount’s publicity department. I’m sure it’s not because I run “The Frodo Franchise” but for my husband’s and my other blog, “Observations on Film Art.” I guess the studio thinks we get more visitors than we actually do, though our traffic isn’t bad at all for an academic blog.

Usually there’s nothing relevant to this blog among Paramount’s press releases, but I just got an interesting one and thought I’d share it with you (condensed a little to include only the essentials):

“The Lovely Bones,” based on the critically acclaimed best-selling novel by Alice Sebold, and directed by Academy Award® winner Peter Jackson, has been selected for the Royal Film Performance 2009. The World Charity Premiere will take place in late November in Leicester Square.

“The Lovely Bones” is directed by Academy Award® winner Peter Jackson and stars Academy Award® nominee Mark Wahlberg (Jack Salmon), Academy Award® winner Rachel Weisz (Abigail Salmon), Academy Award® winner Susan Sarandon (Grandma Lynn), Stanley Tucci (George Harvey), Michael Imperioli (Len Fenerman) and Academy Award® nominee Saoirse Ronan (Susie Salmon), many of whom are expected to attend along with members of the Royal Family. (Full details to be announced)

“The Lovely Bones” is a DreamWorks and Film4 presentation of a Wingnut Production and is distributed by Paramount Pictures worldwide, on general release in the UK in January 2010. The film centres on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family – and her killer – from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.

Peter Jackson: “I am honoured that The Lovely Bones has been selected to be this year’s Royal Gala film, in support of the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund. This film has been an extraordinary journey, for myself as a filmmaker and for all of those who worked on it. On behalf of everyone involved, we are thrilled that Their Royal Highnesses and the CTBF audience will be amongst the first people in the world to see it.”

The Royal Film Performance™ is the principal fundraising event of The Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund (CTBF). All money raised from the event will go directly to the charity, which supports film and TV employees and their families in times of hardship. Details of how to purchase tickets will be available on the CTBF website www.ctbf.co.uk

Actually they’re already available at the charity’s site, with prices of £65 and £90 for non-member seating.

Fans in the UK who can afford those prices to support a good cause can get the jump on the rest of us by weeks!

I’m just back from a two-week trip mostly spent at the Vancouver International Film Festival.  Time to catch up on blogging.

Nothing all that earth-shaking happened while I was gone, apart from MGM getting its requested suspension of interest payments on its debt. The cool reception of its last film of 2009, Fame, does not help its long-term prospects for holding onto its Hobbit production and distribution deals. Still, it might manage to limp through and retain its current assets. (A sale of the entire company, including the Hobbit rights, is rumored to be a distinct possibility.)

One thing I do note in some recent online publications is the report that the principal photography on The Hobbit may happen later than previously announced. The only target date I’ve seen mentioned up to now is next March. Now the recent interview with Ian McKellen on Empireonline has him saying, “And they’ll be going when they’ve always said they would be, which is next spring–March or April. Guillermo even told me at one point, ‘We’re going to film for 383 days.'”

He also remarks that “The scripts for the two films will be delivered very soon. Then they’ll be budgeted, and then they’ll be cast.” This is another indication that Peter Jackson’s July prediction that the first script would be turned in within weeks was perhaps too optimistic. I think we’ve all been expecting announcements about the acceptance of the script, the budgeting, the greenlighting of the film, and the casting. So far, none of this has come out.

Geoff Boucher’s recent Los Angeles Times article states flat out that “principal photography won’t begin until April.” I have no idea what the source for that claim is.

I’ve also heard rumors that the production is somewhat behind its expected schedule. If that’s true (and it is just a rumor at this stage), I can’t believe that the Tolkien Trust’s lawsuit had anything to do with it. I doubt that MGM’s recent financial crisis did, either. Warner Bros. has been funding the costs involved in the pre-production process so far.

There is one other possibility, and I should emphasize that this is pure speculation. It could be that WB/New Line requested revisions after seeing the first script. That would explain the almost complete lack of news we have had at a period when we expected all sorts of announcements to be made. Or possibly the studios decided that they needed to see the scripts for both parts of the film before greenlighting the whole thing. Again, I have no evidence whatsoever for such a possibility. It’s just one explanation that I don’t think anyone has floated yet.

I guess my point is that we have been without concrete news on the progress of The Hobbit for quite some time now, and we’re pretty much dependent on speculation at this stage.

[Update, also October 13: TheOneRing.net has some news on a British TV interview with Ian McKellen. The interview itself isn’t posted yet, but fans have sent in information on its contents: “He has received ‘both’ scripts. Original LOTR cast members will be returning. He has signed the declaration that he will not talk to friends, family or even his agent about the script! He does not know who is cast as Bilbo, but believes he will be an English actor.”

It sounds like the period of little news may be drawing to an end!]

MGM has been granted its request for the interest on its debt to be suspended for three months (September to November). The lenders have obviously realized that the studio’s value would drop if it were not allowed to continue its current production activities, most obviously The Hobbit. The Hollywood Reporter has a good summary of the situation.

One interesting bit of information mentioned in the article is that the script of the first half of The Hobbit has not been turned in to Warner Bros. and will not be until the end of November. I’d like to see some confirmation of that, but if it’s true, it would explain why we have not been getting the sort of news about the production that we have been expecting.

Thanks for Antonio Fanella for alerting me to this news!