http://youtu.be/iVAgTiBrrDA
This weekend marks the end of the incredible journey that is the cinematic versions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic tales of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Over a decade ago, director Peter Jackson was attempting to make movies out of The Lord of the Rings and was able to convince New Line Cinema to invest over $300 million to make the trilogy. The series was so incredible a success that when it came to making The Hobbit, which was only a single book instead of three, the movie company wanted to make it into three movies. I am sure the debate on whether or not there was enough story in the one book to make three movies will rage on for years, but there is no arguing that Jackson and his team did a fantastic job adapting the Middle Earth saga into movies that will live on for generations.
The final movie is The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies which concludes the adventure of Bilbo Baggins and the Company of Dwarves who must not only battle the Dragon Smaug but an army of Orcs as well.
Fans of both Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit will be sad that this is the end of the cinematic versions of Tolkien’s tales, but many will not have to go through genre withdrawals for long as this time next year, they will be watching the newest in the Star Wars series.
This weekend sees the end of another successful series of movies. The first two Night at the Museum movies grossed almost a billion dollars worldwide, so there is no surprise that a third one has been made. Ben Stiller returns as Larry Daley in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, in which the powers of the Tablet of Ahkemrah (which is why the museum comes to life) begin to die out. Larry must team up with his son and Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams in one of his final roles), Jebediah (Owen Wilson) Octavius (Steve Coogan) and others to embark on a quest to save the magic before it is gone forever.
And this weekend also sees the remake of the musical Annie released, produced by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith.
Originally, their daughter Willow was set to star alongside Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz and Rose Byne, but the role of Annie ended up going to Quvenzhané Wallis after her Academy Award-nominated performance in Beasts of the Southern Wild.
It will be interesting to see if this remake will capture the attention of a new generation and Cameron Diaz certainly has her work cut out for her as she has to live up to the performance of the great Carol Burnett in the original. Hopefully, families and fans of musicals will come out to see it before Into the Woods is released next week.
