When you consider all of the hardships that the production of The Hobbit had to face - studio bankruptcies, directors dropping out, workshop fires, union strikes and the like - it's actually fairly incredible that the production is even happening. Yet right now, somewhere in New Zealand, Peter Jackson is setting things up for another day of shooting. It's the film that shouldn't exist, and Jackson is recording every last minute of it.
As reported on Monday, Jackson has launched the first of what will probably be many Hobbit video blogs up on his Facebook page. Starting with an introduction to Jackson, explaining where they are and such, the video is a ten-and-a-half minute look behind the scenes of what should be one of the biggest movies coming out in the next five years.
Check out the video below or in HD over on Jackson's Facebook page.
The really great thing here, for anyone who's a fan of Middle Earth, is the way Peter Jackson seems to be rediscovering his passion for making these films, right before our eyes on video. In recent years Jackson has seemed less than enthusiastic about making The Hobbit and indeed, at the start of this video he looked more like the sort of tired guy we've gotten used to seeing than the enthusiastic filmmaker who spoke to use from the original Lord of the Rings set. But by the end of the video, there's a light in his eyes again. The old fire's coming back. Peter Jackson, at last, seems as genuinely glad to be back in Middle Earth as fans are to have him back.
The small handful of you who were here with Cinema Blend, back when we started this site as a place dedicated to all things Lord of the Rings, know what an amazing experience it was simply following along with the production on those films. Back then no one had ever done video blogs from the set, and the strange thing is no one has ever really done it as well since. We're in for something special here, keep an eye out for more Jackson video blogs from the set, you won't want to miss them.
