Peter Jackson's Spokesman Says Behind-The-Scenes HOBBIT Footage Was Taken Out of Context

A few days ago, we wrote about a behind-the-scenes video that featured footage of director Peter Jackson and his team discussing the difficulties he had while making The Hobbit movies. The gist of it is that Guillermo del Toro developed the project for a year and a half before ultimately walking away, and then Jackson stepped in to direct it with no time for his own pre-production, leaving him wildly unprepared when it came to both the visuals and the story. It's one of the most candid behind-the-scenes discussions I've heard about a movie so recently after its release, and I was frankly a little shocked that Warner Bros. allowed that footage to see the light of day (it doesn't make the studio look great).

But now Jackson's spokesman reached out to Snuff.co.nz (via ScreenCrush) and is saying that the footage was taken out of context from a 45-minute featurette from The Battle of the Five Armies extended edition:

"Somebody has decided to create this cut-down, using only the sections of The Gathering Clouds that discuss the difficulties faced, not the positive ways they were addressed and overcome – which are also covered in this and other featurettes.

Peter has never made a secret of the fact that he took over the Hobbit directing job with very little preparation time remaining before shooting had to begin.

It was a challenge he willingly took on. His comments are an honest reflection of his own personal feelings at times during the movie’s production."

The comments did not reflect on the production of the movies, or the finished result, the spokesman said.

"Peter is very proud of the three Hobbit movies, and actually regards this period as one of his happiest film-making experiences – something he has said publicly many times."

Of course his comments reflected on the production of the movies and the finished result! That's exactly what he was commenting on! But out of context or not, Jackson's body language in both the on-set footage and the floating head segments indicate a man beaten down by the process of making these films in a way that was not even close to the way he would have if given the time to do it properly. This just seems like a half-assed attempt to save face after this video went viral and essentially confirmed what a lot of fans suspected as they watched these movies play out before them in theaters: no one had any clue what the hell they were doing when they were making them. Even after all of that, if you still think The Hobbit movies aren't an outright disaster, watch this excellent video essay and I'm guessing it'll change your mind.