Dark side of The Hobbit: director Peter Jackson gets serious with second film
The second film in The Hobbit trilogy will be a lot darker than its humorous predecessor, director Peter Jackson has warned.
The new film, The Desolation of Smaug, has been labelled as "serious stuff" by Jackson, who revealed that it will move away from the innocence of last year's film, An Unexpected Journey.
Speaking to Empire magazine, Jackson - who is directing all three films in the trilogy of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit - said: "This has less humour in it for sure. The first film was where we allowed ourselves to try and capture something of the children's book, but it is really not appropriate to do that anymore.
"Some pretty serious stuff is going down and it is important that we don't undercut that now."
The film also sees the return of Orlando Bloom as the elf Legolas. However, the character doesn't appear in The Hobbit, a precursor to the Lord of the Rings.
Bloom admitted he was "concerned" about reprising the role.
He said: "I was concerned a little bit, how to justify Legolas' return. But Peter [Jackson], Fran [Walsh] and Philippa [Boyens] were very clear about how it would work. It feels authentic, you know?"
The film is scheduled for release on December 13, with the final part due out later next year.
