I will never forget the bookshelf my parents kept in our living room when I was growing up. My parents are avid readers, so they collected books on world cultures, art, architecture, opera, natural history, and world history. From this vast selection of topics, there was a series of three books packaged together in a special box that always drew my attention. When I pulled one out I found a strange red eye looking at me, surrounded by a field of black with bizarre red writing around the edge of the circle. At the top was what appeared to be four flames licking upward towards an inverted ring. The binding read, The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien.
Maybe it was the creepy eye, or the strange cursive writing, but I knew I liked these books right away, even though I found the design a bit intimidating at the time. My mother saw me looking at them and asked if I was interested in reading them. I said I was, and after some consideration she decided I was still a bit too young for these volumes. However, there was a book she thought would be perfect for me: The Hobbit.
My mother read the entire volume to my brother and me. It was a great edition. The cover was leather, with inlaid gold writing, and a picture of trees with distant mountains. Inside, there were color plates painted by Tolkien himself. My favorite was, of course, the one of Smaug the Dragon. Reading The Hobbit, and later on Lord of the Rings, filled me with the same type of wonder and inspiration that I got from watching Star Wars. I loved these worlds and the characters in them, and I always wanted more.
Fast forward many years, and I find myself working on Star Wars: The Clone Wars with George Lucas. Through this incredible work experience, you get to meet other people that have similar interests; you always have to be ready because you never know who will drop by. One day I was talking to then CG Supervisor Andrew Harris. These were the early days of 2005, so we had some rough concepts of what we were doing, but no real scripts yet, and no actual renders of the animation. In the middle of the conversation, our receptionist Kris Donovan came into the office and said that George was looking for us. That was strange because it was not a “George Day.” Kris said George had brought a visitor — a couple of visitors, in fact. Well, that was even stranger. During that time, we worked behind the Main House at Skywalker Ranch, almost in secret. It wasn’t often we got visitors, so who could it be? I went to the bottom of the stairs and looked across the production room when George found me and said, “There you are! I’ve been looking for you. I want you to show Peter what we’ve been doing with previz.” Yes, you’ve probably guessed correctly. George’s guest was Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Stabilizing my mind, we went into my office and we fired up my computer so I could show Peter the action scene where the AT-TEs climbed the cliff on Teth. It was a really early version of the scene, but it told the story well enough. I had to walk him and George through our entire process, and how we got to where we were in editorial. The team from Weta Workshop that was with Peter was very supportive of our efforts, and in those early days of trying to figure out our series, I think their response to our work was really appreciated by my crew. There was a real mutual understanding and respect between everyone there. We were all big fans of The Lord of the Rings, and they were big fans of Star Wars. Even better for our crew was the fact that George seemed to like what we were doing enough to bring Peter Jackson by and show it to him. That was a big deal, and a real confidence booster.
A couple years later, Mary Franklin brought a friend of hers from Weta by the animation studio. This is when I met Daniel Falconer, one of the designers from The Lord of the Rings films. It turns out he and some of his friends had a Clone Wars night where they would get together and watch episodes. My team and I always really valued the support we got from Daniel and his team, and over the years we would trade emails and thoughts on Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. I appreciate the challenges that different creative teams in our industry face, and I always enjoy seeing the results of their hard work. It’s even better when you know that the effort you are watching is backed by great people, who truly care about the work they are doing. There seems to be a bond between these two worlds, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and the people that watch and create these stories. I guess we just all love the sense of adventure, the sense of wonder, and feeling of hope that we get from these stories. Whether it be facing a stampede of oliphants or a squadron of attacking AT-ATs. These are the stories we all grew up with, and we are fortunate to live in a time where we can get jobs telling these stories and passing them on to future generations.
In appreciation for Daniel and the crew at Weta, and for the relationship Lucasfilm and Peter Jackson have had over the years, I created this image of Gandalf and Yoda.
Congratulations on the opening of The Hobbit. I hope it is a great success, and I look forward to the next two installments. As your roads go ever, ever on, the Force will be with you, always.
Tags: Dave Filoni, peter jackson, The Clone Wars, the hobbit
That is SO neat! I love that you got to meet Mr. Jackson!
Star Wars and LOTR and both such lovely stories!
I was wondering if there is a way I could get a copy of the picture you did, Mr. Filoni?
I really love it! It is so awesome!
I totally agree
Hi Dave!
Great blog entry! Thanks for finally sharing your drawing with us and the really cool story as well on how you discovered “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” adventures. I remember when you talked about your drawing of Yoda and Gandalf at the Q & A at Lucasfilm right after the Season 5 premiere of the first two episodes! Really nice!
Keep up the great work!
Loving Season 5 and can’t wait to see what’s coming up!
The Force is definitely strong with YOU!
FilmakerMike
bro i watch your videos
It’s cool you can see Vader’s helmet in the smoke. I guess they’re talking about the similar problem Yoda has with Vader like Gandalf has with Sauron. Poor buggers stuck with these evil iconic characters.
dave please fix the glitches on this site or talk to whoever is in charge of doing so……my game for ewok villiage wont save/i cant see any other peoples comments on the guides let alone post any,and it takes about 5 times to log in before it logs me in ….its getting anoying and i know its not my computer cause ive asked users in the past about glithches of the site and they have the same problems with them…please fix the problems if possible thanks
I just love your story Dave. Almost similar to my own.
I had already watched LOTR when I was 8 or 9 so I didn’t quite remember it well. But then I watched it again three years later. It was incredible and two years after that I started looking through my Dad’s bookshelf. My Dad is like to your parents, Dave. He just loves to read and got me into reading ever since I was a youngling. We has these two huge bookcases filled to the brim with books. It was a LOTR 3-in-1 that caught my eye because of the Nazgul (Ringwraith) on the cover and the heroes on the back. So I started it as a summer reading project. I started reading The Hobbit a year later because my Dad had said that it was a prequel to the LOTR. It filled with as much wonder as Star Wars. A whole new universe with strange creatures and danger all the way. Perhaps it was the similar Heroe’s Journey circumstances between the two that had me loving them both.
Anyway, I wanted to share that with you. May the Force be with You.
P.S.
I’m also introducing my second oldest sister to LOTR. She’s been excited to see it for sometime now. Stuff like this just doesn’t go away.
That’s great, is it possible for the story of Yoda adventure after Starwars III , escaped from the Sith revenge and visit Middleearth?
that’s just my fantasy idea.
Hay Dave ,
Love the picture of Yoda & Gandalf! I am also a huge fan of the Clone Wars!
You realy took George’s univers and expanded it. I grew up on the original movies.
I have an idea for a story, I would like to share with u and George. It is a story I have been working on for some time.
I would like to get your , prof. Opinion on.
I’ll will be waiting for your reply.
Sincerly, jim lewis
Great story, Dave! The Hobbit was also one of my favorites growing up. Keep up the great work on The Clone Wars. I cannot wait for the next half of the season!
P.S. Keep Ahsoka Tano ALIVE!
Awesome to see the producers are always inspired by others. I’ve always loved LOTR and Star Wars as they always have that sense of adventure, selflessness and comradeship. And I hope you enjoyed “An Unexpected Journey” as much as I did, and as always, great work on TCW. It just gets better and better each season. Can’t wait for “Missing in Action”
AWESOME I read lord of the rings
Amazing story – its really cool to see great men having their childhood dreams realized…I (and some of my teens) have always wanted to meet George Lucas (and Colin Powell, Oprah, Brian Henson & President Obama). Hopefully through some of our YS Projects – we will…”May the force be with you”
anyone know why the comment boards arent working why you cant see other ppls comments……if you know what they are
AWESOME NEW YEAR!!!! I TOTALLY AGREE THAT THE COMBINED DETAIL AND EXAMINATION OF THESE TWO CREATORS HAS TOTALLY CHANGED HOW WE LOOK AT THE WORLD TODAY. THE HOBBIT WAS AWESOME AND CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THE REST OF SEASON 5 OF TCW. HAPPY NEW YEAR AND MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU.
Is there any way to get a higher-rez image? For purchase or download would be great. This will make an awesome desktop background or a a poster in the games room!
Fantastic story, the little ones are reading the Hobbit now as well!
i concur. i can’t wait to see what’s in store for star wars.
Cool I liked it.
How can someone be too young for LOTR. That makes no sense. the length is the only thing that MIGHT be a toughie. Reading might just take longer.
revision: Do not pull the what is they do not know the vocabulary. It is already in word format. Use a dictionary, internet, friend, or teacher. You should have access to one of those things.
Both LOTR and Star Wars are brilliant stories! I started watching Star Wars when I was five or six. A year or two later, while I was still obsessed with Star Wars (I know right? An eight year old girl who obsessed over Star Wars), my dad bought The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I instantly fell in love with them. Now I’m much older and still love Star Wars and LOTR (who wouldn’t?). I even have a small collection of Star Wars action figures (mostly from the Clone Wars). Even now I constantly obsess over Star Wars and LOTR. They are some of my oldest favorites and I still absolutely love them!
There is a arm near Gandalf. Whose is this?
Great story Mr Filoni… it’s always interesting to read about creative people coming together, especially when they’re theortically an ocean apart (in your case quite literally), and considered “rivals” by people who don’t actually get this kind of things….
Love the drawing, it’d be awesome to have a high resolution version!
Cheers.
Hey Mr. Filoni,
Could you take on the unfinished SAMURAI JACK series and 3D would be AWESOME?
TNT