LOTR's Pippin Will Return to Middle Earth with a Song for THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES
As we bear down on the third and final installment of The (interminable and also delightful) Hobbit Saga, Peter Jackson is looking to exploit our nostalgia for his other Middle Earth trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. Or possibly he is feeling nostalgic himself and no one ever says no to him so he does what he wants. Either way, it’s good news for fans.
Remember in the Return of the King when Pippin, played by Billy Boyd, sang “The Edge of Night” while Denethor, son of Ecthelion, wonderfully played by John Noble, grossly ate that chicken leg and that grape tomato and we hated him so much and wondered why couldn’t he see how great Faramir was and also wondered why Jackson had ruined Faramir and made him actually weak instead of strong in a way that Denethor and Boromir just couldn’t understand??? Wow, that got away from me.
Anyway, that song, which was taken from a Tolkien poem and set to a melody Boyd composed himself (although is was scored by composer Howard Shore), was great, and one of the best moments of the movie. Now Boyd is coming back with a new song for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Unfortunately, Jackson has not found a way to shoehorn Pippin into the film, because that would be ridiculous. Instead, the song will play over the credits, which will be a fitting end to all of our onscreen Middle Earth adventures (unless Jackson finally grants my wish and adapts Tom Bombadil's Songs). The new song is called “The Last Goodbye,” and it appears to be written by Boyd with producer Philippa Boyens and screenwriter Fran Walsh. The melody is likely all Boyd’s, who fronts a band called Beecake.
You can rewatch “The Edge of Night” below, and I’ve also included a music video for a Beecake song called “Please Stay.”