It could be argued that Peter Jacksons' prequel to his much acclaimed, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, will seem to be remembered more for its frame rate then anything else. But the film raked in over a billion dollars at the box office so it was never going to be Bilbo's only chance to get his time to shine. The first poster for the sequel, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, was released yesterday, with the first trailer set to online by tomorrow. The poster oozes with tension with Bilbo on his merry way towards the series' baddie, Benedict Cumberbatch's gold loving dragon, Smaug, described in the book ! A most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm".
Despite being one of the highest grossing films of 2012, many critics of the first film complained that the tone was to light and far too humorous, yet the real problem with The Hobbit franchise is the question of whether Jackson can stretch a very short book over nine hours. Whether the decision to stretch the films from the original two installments, to three, was Jackson or the film execs but you cannot help but wonder what Guillermo Del Toro could have done with the franchise. Like its predecessor, The Desolation of Smaug is set for a winter release and will hit our screens on the 13th of Decemeber later this year.
