If you’ve read The Hobbit, then you know that neither the older version of Bilbo (Ian Holm) or Frodo (Elijah Wood) appear in this Tolkien story, although they will be in Peter Jackson’s film adaptions. While I tend to be a purist, I actually think this sounds like a solid way to tie The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit movies together.
The addition of these characters and the story adjustments that I assume must have been made to include them, have me curious. Just how long are we going to have to wait for the arrival of the dwarves–Thorin Oakenshield in particular, this is an RA fanblog after all–in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey?
Am I alone in my curiosity, or has anyone else given this some thought? Whether you’ve given this previous consideration or not, I’m interested in your opinion, so:
Me, My Thoughts, and Richard Armitage 
OK, I said 10 minutes. I’m guessing we’re going to see Frodo and Bilbo and then flash over to Gandolf meeting up with Thorin for the first time and showing him the map along with perhaps a scene of Gandolf receiving the map. I don’t remember exactly where at the moment, but I believe it was while he was held prisoner by someone (the necromancer?) and he received it from one of the dwarves not killed by Smaug. If I wasn’t so tired I’d look it up.
Hmm, well I keep forgetting this movie is called the Hobbit, so we might be hip-deep in hobbits for longer than we want… Bilbo and Frodo have their scene, then Gandalf has to show up 60 years in the past, talk to Bilbo, then vandalize Bilbo’s door. And then Bilbo goes to the market at some point, and buys fish (really, we need these details? Where are the dwarves?) And then maybe finally some dwarves start arriving in pairs at his home. So I’ll bet over 15, but under 30. Someday we might see Gandalf and Thorin talking before all this, but not in the theatrical version.
Not being all that familiar with TH (need to reread it before December) my answer was too damn many minutes, but after seeing the above comments from those who know their Hobbitty stuff, it would seem I’m not wrong! Weare going to have to wait too damn many minutes!
I’m guessing 15 minutes, after they get through the titles, so maybe closer to 30 the way titles run these days. There’s a certain amount of action in the book that can be condensed but other bits that are critical.
I’m going for: tooooo long! The worry that I have is that I’m so excited about seing Thorin (and Kili), that the first couple of times I won’t notice anything else. This means multiple ticket purchase. Maybe they’ll give me a discount for being a nut 🙂 Or by 10, get one ticket free!
I guess about 15 min, but I am more interested how much screentime the dwarves will get in total. In the book they are present in almost all scenes (with the exception of two crucial scenes) but with the added Gandalf plot? And maybe they flesh out the elves and the Laketown people more and that takes time, too.
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