Turning ‘Hobbit’ into two films could be a challenge

When I read that J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved children’s story “The Hobbit” was going to be made into a movie (finally!), I rejoiced.

Director Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning films based on “The Lord of The Rings” trilogy — Tolkien’s follow-up to “The Hobbit” and published 20 years later — was an action-oriented yet faithful adaptation of the British author’s best-selling novels about life and adventure in Middle-earth. The epic fantasy, with a real-world flavor, centers around an all-powerful evil ring and the attempt to destroy it.

After years of legal and financial difficulties, Jackson is going to direct “The Hobbit,” which begins shooting next month in New Zealand, where the “Rings” movies were filmed.

But “The Hobbit” is going to be made into two movies. I couldn’t believe it at first. How are they going turn the adventure of Bilbo Baggins and a group of dwarves into two full-length feature films? "The Hobbit" is a straightforward, tightly written story of 272 pages that doesn't have much backstory or sideplots to it, unlike "The Lord of the Rings."

The award-winning team of Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh (Jackson's wife) and Jackson did a marvelous job of condensing Tolkien’s lengthy “Rings” story into a theater-friendly screenplay. And
the same team, with an assist from Guillermo del Toro, has written the screenplay for “The Hobbit.”

I’m excited, but as a reader and writer, I wonder how they’re going to pull it off. As it stands, there’s no way “The Hobbit” can be turned into more than one film. The story, which takes place about 60 years before the “Rings,” starts with Gandalf the wizard organizing a meeting with 13 dwarves and Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit, at Bilbo’s house. Soon, the dwarves and Bilbo are off on a grand journey
to recover stolen treasure from Smaug the dragon at a far-off place called the Lonely Mountain.

Here are the condensed highlights of that journey (and will most certainly be featured in the movies):

Chapter 2: The group is almost killed and eaten by three giant trolls, who are turned to stone at sunset.

Chapter 4: Most of the group is kidnapped by goblins, but Gandalf saves the day.

Chapter 5: Bilbo escapes from the goblins and runs into the creature named Gollum, who ends up playing a crucial role in the “Rings” trilogy. They battle over a mysterious ring, which is later known as
the One Ring in the trilogy. This chapter, titled “Riddles in the Dark,” is perhaps the most famous in all of Tolkien’s writings. Bilbo takes the ring, escapes Gollum and is reunited with the group.

Chapter 6: The group is caught and surrounded by goblins, wolves and wargs but the eagles rescue them.

Chapter 8: The group is captured by some wicked spiders in the Mirkwood forest. But Bilbo rescues them with help from the ring. Then there’s more misfortune as everyone except Bilbo is captured by wood-elves.

Chapters 9 and 10: The group escapes from the kingdom of the wood-elves and tumbles into the lake town of Esgaroth, a town built by men.

Chapters 11, 12 and 13: The group attempts to get the treasure from Smaug at the Lonely Mountain.

Chapter 14: Smaug nearly destroys Esgaroth but the dragon is slain by the great warrior, Bard.

Chapters 15, 16: The Esgaroth men team up with the wood-elves, and they travel to the Lonely Mountain to confront Bilbo and the dwarves over the treasure. They nearly come to blows over how to split it up.

Chapter 17: Gandalf unites the men, the wood-elves and dwarves to battle the goblins and the wild wolves in a terrible confrontation called the “Battle of the Five Armies” at the mountain. The
goblins/wolves lose, and the victors share the treasure.

Chapters 18, 19: Bilbo and Gandalf travel home to the Shire, where Bilbo will keep the ring to himself for several decades.

Tolkien fans can expect all that action and more in “The Hobbit” films. But it’s not enough to fill two films. So the question remains — how are they going to do it?

I wouldn't be surprised if parts of Tolkien’s mammoth work “The Silmarillion” are incorporated into the script to paint a more complete picture of Middle-earth. “The Silmarillion” is a collection of Tolkien writings that was published in 1977, several years after the author’s death. “The Silmarillion” explores the history and characters of Middle-earth in a much deeper way than Tolkien’s previous works.

Aside from “The Silmarillion,” there are two scenes in “The Hobbit” that could easily be fleshed out and inserted into the narrative.

The first: In Chapter 2, titled “Roast Mutton,” the dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield explains how his family acquired lots of treasure and how it was stolen by Smaug in a terror campaign that killed many.
“We have never forgotten our stolen treasure,” Thorin says. “We still mean to get it back, and to bring our curses home to Smaug — if we can.”

I have a strong feeling this will be an extended sequence in the first film to provide a backstory on Smaug and the dwarves. It could be a fairly exciting piece of storytelling.

The second: In the final chapter, titled “The Last Stage,” while resting in the elvish kingdom of Rivendell on their return trip home, Bilbo overhears Gandalf talking to the elvish leader Elrond about another battle. Gandalf had missed part of the group’s journey because of an emergency. Bilbo hears about “a great council of the white wizards,” and that they had driven the evil Necromancer lord from Mirkwood.

“The North will be freed from that horror for many long years, I hope,” Gandalf says. “Yet I wish he were banished from the world!”

This could be a thrilling action sequence that could run alongside Bilbo and Co.’s run-in with Smaug, leading up to the Battle of the Five Armies.

With all of this material, I’m sure the screenplay writers have burned the midnight oil on many nights to create a gripping, two-film story.

I have always been intrigued about how popular books are adapted into screenplays, and “The Hobbit” will be quite a task, just as “The Lord of the Rings” was.

On another note: With all this material, where will the first film end in the story's narrative? My first guess is when Bilbo & Co. escape from the wood-elves and land in Esgaroth in chapter nine. My second guess is when the group, minus Bilbo, is captured by the wood-elves in chapter eight.

Mark this date on your calendar: Dec. 19, 2012. That’s the day the first half of “The Hobbit” is released, just two days before the supposed “end-of-the-world” as predicted in Mayan prophecy. I wish the Mayans had pushed back the apocalypse by a year so we could see the second half of “The Hobbit.” Oh well, at least we'll see the first, if we don't tarry.

I imagine Gollum saying about the prophecy, “we hates it, we hates it, we hates it for ever!”