I've edited Peter Jackson’s three Hobbit films down into a single 3-hour movie that, I think, follows Tolkien’s original story as lovingly as possible. I should say that while I don’t think Jackson’s storytelling was as concise and character-driven as it could have been, I consider this cut to be a demonstration that there IS a really fun and beautiful movie buried in the material the filmmakers created. It just needed to be carefully extracted. Thus, a “fan edit.”
I spent many weeks carefully recrafting the work into what I’m calling “There and Back Again,” after the title of Bilbo Baggins’ own autobiographical book within the story. This keeps this fan edit distinct from others in a way that I think is respectful to Tolkien’s own intentions.
A little bit in closing. I’d like to say again that I really do appreciate what Peter Jackson has accomplished. I don’t think any other filmmaker could have ever brought Middle Earth to life so beautifully. When I set out to make this version I did it mostly out of curiosity, as a creative project to flex editorial muscles on, and out of my own love of Tolkien and The Hobbit (my favorite book as a child). I genuinely intend no disrespect to Jackson or his incredible team.
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And one last heads up. Due to the unavailability of a Blu Ray version of “The Battle of the Five Armies,” the third act of “There and Back Again” becomes suddenly and dramatically much poorer in image and audio quality. It’s pretty icky when it happens, so I apologize in advance if you make it that far. I intend to fix that one day, once I can buy a higher quality version of that film.
Clips and more details can be found here: https://ahobbitsholiday.wordpress.com/
