(LOS ANGELES) Peter Jackson may still be in post-production on the final installment of his three-part, nine-hour film version of the 250 page children’s classic “The Hobbit,” but it seems the prolific director has no interest in taking a break when that project comes to a close. Early this morning, New Line Cinema issued a press release announcing that the studio and Jackson will partner to bring yet another children’s favorite to the silver screen starting in late 2013. This time around, Jackson and New Line have taken aim at the 23 page, 131 word classic “Goodnight Moon.”
“The most exciting thing about the deal is the creative freedom Jackson is getting in light of the success of the first Hobbit film,” a source close to the final negotiations indicated, “Jackson told the company he couldn’t possibly do justice to the original text in under five films and the studio said ‘Peter, take ten films at three-and-a-half hours a piece if you need to!’ And that is precisely what he decided to do!”
Indeed, the New Line press release promises the “Goodnight Moon” saga will be an “unprecedented, ambitious super-epic” and “a decalogue that only Peter Jackson could imagine or produce.”
“Presented with the option to really dive into the details, Peter just couldn’t pass it up,” stated Jackson’s longtime producing partner Fran Walsh, “he just relishes in every nuance and contour of the material. And he’s getting better and better at it. With the Lord of the Rings Series he was translating really long books into really long movies. But with the Hobbit, he really broke new ground — cinematically exploring shorter material for literally multiples of hours longer than it would take to just read the story itself. I mean, seriously: it took me just over two hours to read the Hobbit, and I’ll be surprised if Peter’s trilogy isn’t pushing eleven-and-a-half in the theatrical release alone. And wait til you see the Director’s Cut! What the man can do to enlarge upon a classic is just … well … stunning.”
While most fans of Jackson’s epic Tolkien films, as well as the original Goodnight Moon source material, have greeted New Line’s announcement with excitement, a small group of skeptics has emerged to voice a variety of concerns about the endeavor.
One such dissenting voice is doctor Benjamin Davidson of Cedars-Sanai Medical Hospital. “Listen, I’m no film critic,” Doctor Davidson stated during a phone interview this afternoon, “but the uptick in the nationwide incidence of deep vein thrombosis during The Hobbit’s opening weekend has been nothing short of alarming. Correlation might not be causation, but I’ll tell you this: there is a limit to how long the human body is meant to sit still. Mr. Jackson is really pushing what is medically acceptable; I hope he thinks about that as he’s crafting this new ten film series.”
Jackson reportedly lost 60 lbs. during a screening of the initial two-and-a-half week long cut of Return of the King
Others closer to the film industry have raised aesthetic, as opposed to medical, concerns about the project. “Maybe the trend towards 3d and gimmicks like changing the frame rate of film just aren’t for me, but I don’t get this one at all,” noted film critic Joseph Morrow stated with a grimace, “I mean, Goodnight Moon? In 3d at 132.4 frames per second? The thing is like twelve sentences long about a kid saying goodnight to things in his room! What’s he gonna do in the first movie?! Tell the backstory of the balloon!? Hollywood has simply lost its damn mind. I’m done. Just done. I have to go.”
While critics like Mr. Morrow might hold some sway with older and more discerning moviegoers, the success of The Hobbit suggests that Hollywood executives and Directors like Peter Jackson have found and cultivated an audience that will sit through whatever material they offer no matter how long it runs. “It’s just fantastic,” Jackson told a group at ComicCon last year, “my fans have expressed such a love for this material and such faith in me that I simply no longer feel restrained by traditional concerns about narrative momentum or even story structure itself. When I saw how much people enjoyed the fourteen separate endings I tacked onto the end of Return of the King, I just knew the sky was the limit. You are all really gonna enjoy the Hobbit and what comes next, I promise.”
Indeed, looking even farther into the future, Fran Walsh doesn’t see Jackson slowing down even for a moment. “I really think this is all building somewhere quite special,” Jackson’s friend and partner said this afternoon with a glint in her eye, “Peter once confessed to me that he has long dreamed of doing a realtime version of Gabriel García Márquez’s ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude.’ I, for one, would be honored to take that journey with him.”
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