Peter Jackson: Expect some serious disrespect of the elves at Rivendell
“You are going to get some serious disrespect of the elves at Rivendell,” Peter Jackson warns Hobbit fans. The extended version of the first Hobbit movie, An Unexpected Journey, is due for release on Blu-ray and DVD just a month before the sequel comes out. The director tells Empire he is now editing and leaving some scenes out of the theatrical cut, since people don’t need to worry about them, but they will be shown in the detailed version. “We are putting things in the extended cut that are going to play straight into the second film,” Jackson explains, “like this character Girion, who is defending [the city of] Dale using black arrows against Smaug. And the black arrows play a part in the ongoing story, for they are the one thing that can pierce the dragon’s hide.” This will now be seen in the extended prologue, with Girion’s badly aimed black arrows bouncing off Smaug’s scales rather than puncturing his underbelly. “The are also issues with Thranduil [played by Lee Pace],” adds Jackson. “We get some of the reasons why he and the dwarfs had a falling out – to do with these white gems…” We will learn from the elves’ perspective, why they didn’t come to the dwarves’ aid.
“It’s unique,” concludes the director on having his story operate on two levels. “Not many other movies have this facility.”
The August issue of Empire hits shops on Thursday June 27. You can find the first scans of it in our gallery.
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