The capacity that film fans seem to have (myself included) to over simplify certain things and fall into a blood lust of rabid and blatant fanism never ceases to amaze me. Like the fools who got running with the whole “Craig Not Bond” site when it was announced Daniel Craig was cast as the new James Bond. They, the self proclaimed “true fans of Bond” thought they knew better than the studio. They thought that Bond can only work if it fits into what they had preconceived in their minds and Daniel Craig was NOT what they preconceived. Well guess what… they were wrong. Dead wrong. And now an argument could be made that Craig is the best Bond of all time.
This post will make me really unpopular… but since when has that ever stopped me for calling it like I see it?
The same mistake that the fools at Craig Not Bond committed is now being repeated verbatim by some fans of the Lord of the Rings films… and for the most part are just repeating the same stuff the Craig Not Bond people did. “It can’t work without Jackson!”. “Peter Jackson is the ONLY person who can direct The Hobbit!”. We’ll BOYCOTT The Hobbit if Peter Jackson isn’t directing. Sad sad sad.
Look, let me make this perfectly clear. I like Peter Jackson as a director. I think the job he did on The Lord of the Rings was nothing short of fantastic and I personally would LOVE to see him come back to direct The Hobbit. But my friends… we all just need to calm down a little bit, cut through the crap, the cliché slogans, and be a bit more objective here.
There are a couple of important points to keep in mind here:
1) New Line did NOT just out of the blue decide to not use Peter Jackson. Jackson and New Line are involved in a legal dispute right now. New Line offered to negotiate a settlement with Jackson… Jackson offered to end the battle with an auditor… and both of them have dug in their heels and said “NO” to each others offers. Neither care what the fans want. Don’t believe for a second the PR bullshit New Line or Jackson try to feed you.
2) New Line has no options. They can’t wait for a court trial with Jackson because they only have a limited amount of time to make The Hobbit or else they lose the rights to the film. Jackson refuses to make it until after a trial (which is understandable given the circumstances)… so what choice does New line have but to move on without Jackson? None. You and I both would do the exact same thing and look for another director.
3) Without New Line, there never would have been a Lord of the Rings. No other studio was willing or had the vision to invest well over $300 million into the project. All other studios turned it down, or only wanted the whole trilogy to be just 1 movie instead of 3. New Line gave Peter Jackson everything he needed to do LOTR. Together they gave us film history. New Line and Jackson both got filthy rich on the deal.
TALK OF A BOYCOTT
This has got to be one of the most infantile, stupid, moronic and childish things I’ve ever heard of. “If you don’t give us the director we want, we’re going to organize a Boycott of The Hobbit”. Grow up people. Calling for a Boycott is essentially saying that even if New Line gets a new director, and The Hobbit turns out to be FANTASTIC and even better than LOTR, we’re going to plug our ears, close our eyes and yell out “LA LA LA LA LA LA, I’m not listening, I’m not watching LA LA LA LA LA”. It’s the exact same thing the “Craig Not Bond” people did… they made up their minds to hate Craig before even seeing Craig as Bond. Now they look like fools. These “boycotters” are putting themselves in the same situation.
Calling for a boycott is nothing but the actions of a bunch of deluded self important sycophants who are basically admitting that they don’t even want to know if they’re wrong… and if they are wrong… will never have to admit it because they “boycotted” the movie. Morons.
WHAT IF PETER JACKSON DIDN’T DIRECT LOTR?
Stay with me here with this scenario. Imagine for a moment that Ron Howard (Just pulled that name out) had directed LOTR. Stay with me… stay with me. Just imagine that for a moment. Ok. Now, let’s say the films turned out 99% as wonderful as they did with Jackson. Ok? Got it? Everyone LOVED the Ron Howard LOTR trilogy. Ok? Got it?
Now, Ron Howard and New Line have a legal battle and it’s announced that Howard won’t be back to direct The Hobbit. Everyone gets all pissed off, and some fools start calling for a Boycott. Still with me? Ok… now imagine this….
New Line hires this other experienced director do to The Hobbit named Peter Jackson. New Line is confident that this Peter Jackson guy will do a great job with it. But still, the LOTR fans cry out “If it’s not Ron Howard it shouldn’t be anyone at all!!! This Peter Jackson will never do as good of a job as Ron Howard!!!”.
You see where I’m going with this right? In this imaginary scenario, the fans would be WRONG. Little did they know that this Peter Jackson was actually going to do a BETTER job than Ron Howard… but the fans were too narrow minded to see beyond what they’ve already seen.
Now, in our reality, Ron Howard is actually Peter Jackson… but somewhere our there… there is another director who could possibly do and even better job than Jackson did. Why not at least admit the possibility?
DIRECTOR CHANGES
Sometimes, every once in a while, a director change is a good thing, no matter how good the previous director did. People couldn’t believe George Lucas wasn’t going to direct Empire Strikes Back… and that worked out great (they changed directors again for Return of the Jedi, and once again, magnificent). Harry Potter has changed directors almost every film… and it has survived just fine thank you.
TO SUM IT ALL UP
– I would love to see Jackson back to direct The Hobbit
– New Line and Jackson are both responsible for it not happening
– A boycott is moronic, stupid and screwing yourself out of the chance that replacing Jackson for Howard might be even better
– Other Franchises have changed directors and it can work out great
– It’s ok to not like the news that Jackson isn’t directing The Hobbit. It’s even ok to HATE the news. It’s cool to think The Hobbit will suck without Jackson…. but at least admit this MIGHT just work out even better. That there is a chance Jackson not directing won’t matter. At least be willing to give it a shot, even if you don’t think it’ll work.
We all just need to calm down, have a drink, eat some left over turkey, and go to a strip club or something tonight.
Cheers! (you may now begin sending me your hate mail)
