Peter Jackson on “The Hobbit” and “TinTin”

Script #1 is done. 

Peter Jackson is out doing publicity for his upcoming “The Lovely Bones,” but that doesn’t mean people are going to stay on that subject. Of course everyone wants to know about his other projects, such as “The Hobbit” movies and “TinTin.”

Jackson talked to the UK’s IntheNews about the progress of “The Hobbit.”

“‘The Hobbit’ will be two movies and we’ve written the first script and delivered it to the studio who seem to be happy with it…We’re now halfway through the second script and Philippa, Fran, Guillermo and myself are doing the scripts and having great fun.”

“It was an interesting experience because eight or nine years have passed since we wrote the ‘Lord of the Rings’ screenplays and I was worried it’d be weird or hard or uncomfortable to go back there, but as soon as we started writing the scripts it was fun, actually, and easy.”

On writing the scripts for another director, Guillermo del Toro, instead of himself:

“We’re writing the screenplays with him, so in terms of the script, there is continuity. We’re writing Ian McKellen’s dialogue just the same as we did in ‘Lord of the Rings.’ But Guillermo, being the director, will obviously take the script and interpret that and shoot his film. So that’ll be interesting to see.”

It will be interesting, indeed. As for “The Adventures of TinTin: Secret of the Unicorn,” which Steven Spielberg directed, Jackson told the BBC News

“Tintin is great. It’s made. The movie is cut together and now [we] are turning it into a fully-rendered film”.

“So the movie, to some degree, exists in a very rough state.”

However, it’s going to take two years to complete the computer animation. So we’ve got a long ways to go before we can even begin to imagine that one.

And that’s your Peter Jackson update for the day. Oh, yeah, “The Lovely Bones” is opening soon for Oscar consideration.

“That’s actually the reason I wanted him to do it. I felt like I’d be trying to compete with myself and deliberately do things differently, which is not the way I want to work. I want it to be natural.”