'The Hobbit' Comic-Con Footage Will Not Screen In 3D or 48 FPS

The "Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" panel on Saturday afternoon in San Diego is already one of the most anticipated events at Comic-Con 2012. Yet despite planning to debut new footage from the film, director Peter Jackson won't let fans fully experience his latest epic. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jackson revealed the "Hobbit" footage will be shown in 2D at 24 frames per second (fps), as opposed to 3D at 48 fps.

What that means: Back in April at CinemaCon, Jackson debuted 48 fps scenes to assembled journalists, and the reactions were mixed. "The footage I saw looked terrible … completely non-cinematic," wrote Devin Faraci at Badass Digest. "The sets looked like sets … sets don’t even look like sets when you’re on them live, but these looked like sets. The magical illusion of cinema is stripped away completely.”

Shooting in 48 fps is twice the standard frame rate that has been used to make movies since the 1930s; "The Hobbit" will be the first major studio film to be shot using 48 fps technology.

"I think it’s more about protecting the downside, rather than helping the film in any significant way," Jackson said, rather candidly. "There is a huge audience waiting to see 'The Hobbit,' and any positive press from Comic-Con will truthfully have little impact on that. However, as we saw at CinemaCon earlier this year, with our 48 frames per second presentation, negative bloggers are the ones the mainstream press runs with and quotes from."

Jackson said he wants the attention "The Hobbit" gets to stay "firmly with the content and not the technical stuff."

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" is the first of two "Hobbit" films directed by Jackson. It hits theaters on Dec. 14.

Check back to HuffPost Entertainment for more from the "Hobbit" Comic-Con event this weekend. For more on Jackson, head over to the Times website.

[via LAT/Hero Complex]