In Claridges, the cast of The Hobbit are darting to and fro between press conferences and interviews. In most cases they are far less hairy or in fear of their lives, but each to a man (and dwarf and wizard and hobbit) are demonstrating their clear and wholesale admiration for the man wielding the magic. Theya re speaking not of Gandalf – though there’s a clear, mischievous and ever present twinkle in Ian McKellen’s eye - but of director Peter Jackson.
"It's always exciting when the film's about to be released because you spend two or three years making it and trying to preserve the secrets of the movie and just trying to get it made. THEN there's the time to hand it over to the whole world... in our case, twenty thousand cinemas around the world!” he sighs. “I'm looking forward to it, I'm extremely proud of the movie and we're in the entertainment business... we make these films to entertain people... so the whole point is to get it out there!"
Every Tolkien premiere and cinematic release is the result of years of production. Jackson admits it’s a double-edged sword. The workload is hard, the expectations can be even heavier…
“To me... you have a responsibility when you're making a movie. You've got a responsibility to audiences - you're trying to make a movie that's worthy of the money they're going to pay at the door when they go to the cinema; the responsibility to the studio who are giving you a lot of money and entrusting it to you to make a film for them; you have a responsibility to yourself... I was an eight-year-old kid in New Zealand dreaming of making movies one day and doing exactly what I wanted to do. Sleeping seems to be something you should do a lot later on…”
But even Jackson and his team felt they might have been prematurely hobbled and their quest stymied when the actor they wanted at the heart of the film wasn’t available. Martin Freeman was now committed to the BBC series Sherlock.
“Martin was the first person that came to mind and the only person that we ever wanted for the role. I think we spoke to Martin about eighteen months before we started shooting and it was hard for the film to get a green-light because MGM, one of the co-rights holders was having financial issues and the studio was being sold - it wasn't possible to proceed with the movie until that situation was resolved. We were in a waiting pattern to some degree,” Jackson explains. “During that period of time, Sherlock arrived and by the time we could formally offer Martin the role, the shooting of the second series of Sherlock was due to start shooting right in the middle. We were shooting for about a year and a half. I was in a state of panic, I think... we couldn't think of anyone else. Unless that piece of casting is perfect, you're really jeopardising the film and the investment and the audience enjoyment…”
“I was having sleepless nights and I lay awake one night and I'd downlaoded Sherlock to my iPad and was watching the second episode at about four o'clock in the morning... and watching Martin... and thinking how did we end up with this problem - it's a disaster!” he continues. “I got up in the morning, made some phone-calls and basically the idea (which was pretty audacious, really, for the way the film-industry works - was to start shooting, stop filming and let Martin go back to the UK to do the second Sherlock shoot and THEN continue on. I spoke to the studio, checked with Martin to see if he'd be okay with that and it was the best phone-call I ever made!”
Freeman admits he was shocked at this second-chance at the project.
“I was amazed and delighted when that phone-call came. I was rehearsing a play in London at the time and mentally I'd already said goodbye to The Hobbit, I'd had to pass on it. It was dull and boring to NOT be doing it. I've never been one to dwell on things, I'm very 'onwards and upwards and all that', but I'd rather not have had to pass on it. I got a call from my agent saying it was back on, that peter had been able to re-arrange it. I was... amazed. Suffice to say, I was extremely surprised and took it as a huge compliment and I still do…”
There’s little argument that Jackson – who had been previously known for smaller, cult movies such as Heavenly Creatures, the low-budget splatterfest Bad Taste and the politically incorrect Meet the Feebles – managed to create something financially rewarding, creatively successful nd industry-defining with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. On a story-telling and technological level it made its mark – one that still endures.
So I ask him, in that capacity as not just a film-maker but an accepted innovator, what does he think of as the real next challenges for cinema?
“It's interesting. I don't know. There is a degree of jeopardy at the moment with the film industry. With all the alternative ways that people have to see movies from your home entertainment systems down an iPhone. I really hate the idea that I'm a director making a film for an iPad. That's kinda depressing. I think I WOULD go and lie on a beach in Fiji and retire if I thought I was really doing that. So... it is a time when cinema audiences are dwindling, they are going down. As an industry we have to be looking at what we can do to increase and enhance the experience of going to a cinema - of making young people especially, come to a cinema. For one, I don't believe that we should be thinking that the technology we created for theatrical presentations in 1927 should still be what we need to be using in 2012. I think we should look at the technology we have available and be asking how we can make it more immersive, more magical, more spectacular. Movies are and should be... it should be the occasion of going out into a room with your friends and strangers and seeing this huge image on a screen with incredible pictures and incredible sounds... being transported into this escapist piece of entertainment. That's what I love about cinema…”
“It's a great time to be making films. I can shut my eyes and any image that I imagine, inspired by the words of Tolkien, you can put that on film now. Anything you imagine is now possible if you have the right people to help you. There is no barrier any more. It's like being in a toy box…”
With the release of The Hobbit, the toys are back in town.
