Hobbit blogging: The little one's a psycho (and one of them is Richard Armitage) STUFF.CO.NZ

Facebook Three Thorins but which one is actor Richard Armitage?

Although Jackson will be finished with his actors by the end of today, he still has a lot of post-production work to complete on the second instalment of the trilogy, The Desolation of Smaug, and the final part, There and Back Again.

Still, even with all the pressure on him, he hasn't lost his sense of humour.

"I asked the various Thorins to pose just before they headed off to lunch. One of these is Richard Armitage, and two of them are not. It's your guess ... The one in the middle is a little psycho," he wrote.

"I am looking forward to making movies with everyone the same height in the future."

Jackson first began filming Tolkien's works in October 1999, with The Lord of the Rings.

The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies have given thousands of Kiwis a start in the film industry, and a huge boost to New Zealand's tourism industry.

However, the production has always been smooth. A complicated fight over the film rights, a fallout between Jackson and the studio heads, the bankruptcy of MGM and union dispute almost stopped the book getting to the screen.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/8969391/Hobbit-blogging-The-little-ones-a-psycho

Exclusive Video: Martin Freeman on The Hobbit The star of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has some NSFW words for his co-star Benedict Cumberbatch. (CRAVE ON LINE)

March 5th, 2013 William Bibbiani

Bibbs grills the star on his personal history with J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy series, how the ending of The Hobbit changed when the film split from two films into three, and Andy Serkis's first turn behind the camera as Peter Jackson's 2nd Unit Director. Freeman also has some decidedly choice words for his "Sherlock" co-star, and the future voice of Smaug, Benedict Cumberbatch. You can see them on-screen together (sort of) in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which hits theaters on December 13, 2013.

READ MORE: http://www.craveonline.com/film/interviews/453879-exclusive-video-martin-freeman-on-the-hobbit

James McAvoy: 'I want to play Gandalf in Tolkien prequels' Published Sunday, Jan 6 2013, 2:34am EST | By Paul Martinovic (DIGITAL SPY)

James McAvoy has said that he would love to play legendary wizard Gandalf.

The character, who features heavily in JRR Tolkien's most famous works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, has been made famous by Sir Ian McKellen in Peter Jackson's screen adaptations.

Total Film reports that the X-Men: First Class star revealed that he would like the role should there be any prequels to the recent films.

Revealing an in-depth knowledge of Tolkien's work, he specifically referenced the possibility of appearing in something adapted from Tolkien anthology The Silmarillion.

He told the magazine: "It's a collection of poems and songs that chart the ancient history of Middle-earth. My true geek is coming to the fore, but they're really, really beautiful stories.

READ MORE: http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a448815/james-mcavoy-i-want-to-play-gandalf-in-tolkien-prequels.html

Richard Armitage Dishes on Battle of Five Armies in 'Hobbit: There and Back Again' ACES SHOW BIZ

The Thorin Oakenshield depicter predicts the epic battle will be a manic fight in the air, while another cast member Andy Serkis claims, 'It's going to be intense beyond belief.'

"The Hobbit" has just released the first installment of the trilogy, but one of its actors, Richard Armitage, is already raving about the epic Battle of Five Armies in the third film, "The Hobbit: There and Back Again". While the intense sequence hasn't been shot just yet, he envisioned what it would be like.

"It's been put aside until next year, thankfully," Armitage jokingly said of the filming. "It's this big thing looming over us. I'm predicting about ten weeks for the shoot because it's an extensive battle and each character is going to have their 'hero' moment on the battlefield. It's a manic fight in the air - the eagles are fighting bats - and on the ground, and I can't wait to see what Pete does with that."

Actor and second-unit director Andy Serkis, who will handle the big fight sequence, hints that "it's going to be intense beyond belief. It's going to be extraordinary - that's all I can say." The epic battle sequence will see the Men, the Elves, the Dwarves and the Eagles, all fighting for the future of Middle-earth.

Read more: http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00056650.html#ixzz2GAZI25HR

"This is a fan made compilation of all The Hobbit: Unexpected Journey trailers and TV spots, including: Announcement trailer, Announcement trailer (G), Trailer 1, TV Spot 1 - 7, UK 1 minute TV spot, Japanese 1 minute TV Spot. Shots and sequences have been re-ordered into the possible running order of the final film. The audio can be choppy in places as original trailer background music overlaps much of the dialogue."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3Hy6O682OGI

FROM THE FLICKERING MYTH WEBSITE

http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2012/11/the-hobbit-unexpectedly-short-journey.html

Epic New TV Spot For THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY; Listen To The Full Soundtrack (WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS)

Posted by Michelle McCue

Warner Bros. has released the sixth TV spot for THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY. The first of a trilogy of films from Oscar®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy) will be released in the U.S. on December 14, 2012.

While you’re sitting at your computer working in your cubicle or having a midday coffee in some shop, listen to the complete, emotional THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY soundtrack over at Empire HERE. Due to hit stores on December 11th, the soundtrack will be available both digitally and as a 2 CD set. A Special Edition of the soundtrack, featuring six exclusive bonus tracks, seven extended score cues, and deluxe liner notes will also be available December 11. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey features original score by Academy Award® winner Howard Shore recorded at famed Abbey Road studios by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Additionally, it includes an original song entitled “Song of the Lonely Mountain,” written and performed by Neil Finn (Crowded House).

THERE'S LOTS MORE:  http://wearemoviegeeks.com/2012/11/watch-the-epic-new-tv-spot-for-the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey-listen-to-the-full-soundtrack/

THE HOBBIT Trailer #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruVlBv2s7yw

This looks absolutely wonderful - I love the trailer, Martin Freeman is great and Richard Armitage is epic!


Release Date: 14 December 2012
Genre: Adventure | Fantasy
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen, Luke Evans, Elijah Wood, Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Richard Armitage, Ian Holm
Directors: Peter Jackson
Writer: J.R.R. Tolkien, Fran Walsh
Studio: Warner Bros.

Arguably new Hobbit trailer hits the ‘net August 6, 2012 By Earnest Cavalli (DIGITAL TRENDS)

Thanks to roughly three seconds of new footage, our headline is technically accurate.

Hey guys! Come check this out! A brand new trailer for Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy tome The Hobbit appeared over the weekend! We’ve got it embedded below, but first we should probably cover the necessary disclaimer.

When we say “brand new trailer,” what we actually mean is “this trailer, which was hyped as new by other people long before we lazily deconstructed that phrase, contains about three seconds of never-before-seen footage from The Hobbit, while the rest of it has already appeared in the trailer for The Hobbit that was attached to theatrical screenings of Pixar’s Brave.” Yeah, we realize that’s something of a disappointment for all you Tolkien fans, but rest assured that we felt just as let down as you do now when we first came across this footage.

That said, there’s probably at least a few of you who never saw that last Hobbit trailer, so for that minority this should be something of a wonderful, geek-scented treat. Plus, let’s be honest, you hardcore Tolkien nerds (read: the sort who have that previous trailer seared into their memory) would watch this thing anyway, if only to comment on how little of the footage is novel. So let’s just watch the thing and whine about it afterwards, k?


Read more:  http://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/arguably-new-hobbit-trailer-hits-the-net/

Five Possible Reasons that The Hobbit is Spilling Over into a Third Movie KELSEY ANN BARRETT (TOR.COM) Via SCOOP IT

Okay, we know that The Lord of the Rings movies were long, especially with the extended versions, but Peter Jackson still managed to keep each single book down to a single corresponding film. So why, then, can he not even fit The Hobbit into two movies, but has to make it three? I have a few theories

1) The Necromancer


In the book, we don’t get to see where Gandalf goes off to when he abandons Thorin and Company on the edge of Mirkwood, but we know from the LotR appendices and some of Tolkien’s notes that the wizard left to lead an assault upon the Necromancer in his lair at Dol Guldur, in the heart of Mirkwood. Mirkwood wasn’t always called Mirkwood, after all—it used to be Greenwood the Great, and it was only after the Necromancer’s arrival and the result of his influence there that the elves renamed the forest Mirkwood. That was when it became the dangerous place that the dwarves and Bilbo had to travel through.

We’ve seen clips in the trailer of Gandalf wandering carefully through some creepy gray stone ruins, and one has to assume that there will be a big confrontation between him and the Necromancer. (Possibly in the tradition of that epic Gandalf v. Saruman smackdown in Fellowship? Or something even more terrifying?) The fact that Benedict Cumberbatch is playing Smaug makes it logical to cast him in another voice-acting role within the movie (just as John Rhys-Davies played Gimli and voiced Treebeard) but once you have that voice and that talent, why not use it to its fullest? Will we see only one scene with the Necromancer, or will there be several? Is the scene we’ve glimpsed in the trailer that first time Gandalf snuck into Dol Guldur (no one knew who the Necromancer really was—although the Wise suspected it was one of the Nazgul—until Gandalf snuck in and discovered that it was actually Sauron) and is it possible that we may also see the battle itself, with all the strength of the elves and wizards thrown against the growing shadow of Sauron?

 MORE OF THE STORY: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/07/five-possible-reasons-that-the-hobbit-is-spilling-over-into-a-third-movie

Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman: Cast of The Hobbit interviewed by Entertainment Weekly Comic Con (YOUTUBE)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSgSZHW0q-0

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” – Opening on December 14, 2012: (COSMIC BOOK NEWS)

About “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” – Opening on December 14, 2012:

From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, a production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The film follows title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug.

Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain, first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever…Gollum. Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities…

A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know. The screenplay for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson & Guillermo del Toro, based on The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Jackson is also producing the film, together with Carolynne Cunningham, Zane Weiner and Fran Walsh. The executive producers are Alan Horn, Toby Emmerich, Ken Kamins and Carolyn Blackwood.


READ MORE: http://movies.cosmicbooknews.com/content/superman-man-steel-2013-zack-snyder-audience-qa-planned-at-comic-con

Richard Armitage at The Hobbit Press Conference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSq2FkxsDoQ&feature=player_embedded#!

Billy Connolly Speaks On Peter Jackson’s ‘The Hobbit’ – “I’m Covered In Armour, It’s Like I’m Wearing A Volkswagen” (FLICKS AND BITS)

On the promotional campaign for Pixar’s ‘Brave,’ the ever hilarious Billy Connolly spoke briefly about his work on Peter Jackson’s two-part movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit.’ In the two films, Connolly plays Dain Ironfoot, the great Dwarf warrior and cousin of Richard Armitage’s Thorin Oakenshield. Commenting on what it feels like becoming a Dwarf, Connolly revealed, “It was brilliant, it still is brilliant, I’m in the middle of it. It’s only a cameo role, I’m hardly in it… I’m covered in armour, it’s like I’m wearing a Volkswagen! I don’t know how I’m supposed to fight with all this stuff.”

The legendary comedian and actor humorously provided some details about his involvement with the film and his history with J.R.R. Tolkien’s source material, “My manager said, “You’ve got an offer for this ‘Hobbit’ thing, would you fancy it?” I said, “Oooohhhhh.” It was the most bizarre thing I’ve ever done because they sent me a page of dialogue and I wasn’t on it. I thought, “What do they think I’m gonna get from this?” I think it was to show me the kind of language that was being used. Then I got there to New Zealand and they gave me a script that I wasn’t in. And Peter Jackson said, “Have you read ‘The Hobbit’? And I said, “No.” I said, “Not only that, but I don’t like people who have.” (Laughs) He thought it was funny, I had to explain that when I was a young hippy guy, there was two distinct camps, there was the blues and bluegrass brigade, who liked American music and goodtime. And then there was them, with the glasses and the Tolkien. I thought, “Give me a break.” I never liked them, so I made it my business to never read Tolkien in case I became one of them. And then I got offered the part (laughs).”




READ MORE:  http://www.flicksandbits.com/2012/06/23/billy-connolly-speaks-on-peter-jacksons-the-hobbit-im-covered-in-armour-its-like-im-wearing-a-volkswagen/27611/

Hobbit pub row: Landlady overwhelmed by support (BBC NEWS)

The Hobbit has been trading for more than two decade

The landlady of a pub threatened with legal action by a Hollywood film company says she is overwhelmed by the support the pub has had.

The Hobbit pub in Southampton had been accused of copyright infringement by lawyers representing the Saul Zaentz Company (SZC) in California.

A Facebook campaign set up by the pub's users has more than 50,000 supporters. Hollywood film SZC company has offered to "amicably resolve" the dispute over its name and decor.

Producer Paul Zaentz said he was open to licensing the pub to use its JRR Tolkien brands.

Landlady Stella Mary Roberts, a huge Tolkien fan, said: "I think they've been scared off, I don't think they [SZC] were expecting the reaction on Facebook.

"Once they realised what they were up against, they had to stop and think 'we need to re-address this'. "We are still waiting to hear back from the solicitors to find out what exactly this licence consists of, we need it in black and white."


READ MORE:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-17396794

‘The Hobbit’: An unexpected journey on- and off-screen (LA Times)

Jan. 14, 2012 | 5:00 a.m.

Hero Complex Exclusive: Martin Freeman plays Bilbo Baggins in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." (Mark Pokorny/Warner Bros.)

No major release of 2012 arrives at theaters with more baggage or battle scars than “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” a title that became a sort of epic inside joke for the cast and his crew, many of whom worked on “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy that made movie history a decade ago.

“I think fate has actually been kind to us,” director Peter Jackson said last summer, although he didn’t sound convinced by his own words. “Yes, I think fate was kind but I don’t know that we knew that along the way.”

That’s how most quests go, of course, but the journey to adapt J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth saga into a lavish two-part movie adventure was especially stormy right from the beginning. Roadblocks included an ugly legal battle with the author’s heirs, a two-year delay that came with financial meltdown of MGM, the jolting defection of director Guillermo del Toro, a nasty union dispute and a hospital stay to treat a stomach ulcer for Jackson, who shifted from co-writer and executive producer to director after del Toro’s departure in May of 2010.
There’s also been the vague but very real anxiety that comes with competing with history — can this encore effort actually escape the considerable shadow of the “Rings” trilogy, which racked up $2.9 billion in worldwide box office and saw its finale installment in 2004 become the first fantasy film to win the Oscar for best picture?

This time around, Martin Freeman (best known for costarring in BBC’s “The Office” and his work in films such as “Love Actually” and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”) portrays Bilbo Baggins, a young Hobbit who joins a band of dwarfs on their journeys to Lonely Mountain where they hope to reclaim their treasure from Smaug, the fire-breathing dragon who has squatted for so long on his hoarded riches that his pale underbelly is encrusted with jewels and gold pieces.

Not only is Ian McKellen back in the peaked hat of Gandalf, but there are also plenty of other familiar faces from the “Rings” cast (although some make only fleeting appearances); among them are Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, Christopher Lee and even Ian Holm, who portrayed the older version of Freeman’s character when last we visited the Shire, the land of the Hobbits.

Peter Jackson talks to Martin Freeman, who plays Bilbo Baggins, on the set of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." (James Fisher / Warner Bros.)

For the uninitiated, “The Hobbit” was published in 1937 and is considered by many Tolkien scholars to be a Misty Mountain warm-up act for the darker, richer 1950s “Rings” epic, which aimed for older readers and found them by the millions across the decades. The softer tones of “The Hobbit” were an early concern for Jackson and the returning members of the “Rings” creative team, among them Philippa Boyens, a screenwriter on all three “Rings” films (and an Oscar winner for “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” which closed out the trilogy in 2004).

“The story is very much a children’s story so deciding how to tell this was one of the first things we had to do,” Boyens said in a phone interview right before Christmas. “Who is the audience? It is very distinctly different, tonally, to ‘Lord of the Rings’ until the very end and then you begin to see the world of Middle-earth opening up… but, having said that, we felt that it is the same audience [who will come to see the films] and then you start to worry because it is easy to repeat yourself. It is quite a similar journey, you’re going from the Shire to a large, dangerous mountain.”

Peter Jackson on the set of "The Hobbit." (Warner Bros.)

By most reports, Warner Bros.’ two “Hobbit” films — the second of which, “The Hobbit: There and Back Again,” will be released in 2013 — have a combined budget in the $500-million range, so the stakes are high. The appetite of fans is certainly intense (the first trailer for the film, released Dec. 20, quickly became an Internet sensation) and when Jackson made a surprise appearance last summer at Comic-Con International in San Diego he was cheered like a returning war hero.

Backstage, he said that, after the first three Tolkien films, he never expected to be back for another tour of duty but that — like Bilbo Baggins — it’s the journey that chooses the traveler, not the other way around.

“This is the most enjoyable filmmaking experience of my career, by far, which is interesting since I came into it slightly reluctantly,” the director said in San Diego. “It’s all unexpected.”

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” opens Dec. 14.

— Geoff Boucher

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2012/01/14/the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey-new-photo-peter-jackson-martin-freeman/

VIDEO: Long Lost Animated Version Of The Hobbit, As Made In Under A Month (Bleeding Cool)

Written on January 9, 2012 by Brendon Connelly in Film, Video

Recently hauled out of the vaults and uploaded to the internet is a most interesting short animation based upon The Hobbit. It was animated and edited within a single month by Gene Deitch… but why in such a hurry?

You can read the full story, well-told, at Deitch’s website (with thanks to Cartoon Brew for the link), but here’s a few excerpts, picking up the story soon after the publication of The Lord of the Rings:

The Tolkien craze had exploded, and the value of the film rights reached outer space. Suddenly Bill [Snyder, the producer] had the possibility of getting a hefty profit without having to finance or produce anything!

Why invest money, plus a year-and-a-half of work, when you can make money without all that sweat? Not only had the Tolkien estate lawyers given Snyder the rights for peanuts, but in their ignorance of film terminology, they had left a million-dollar-loop-hole in the contract: It merely stated that in order to hold his option for The Lord of the Rings, Snyder had to “produce a full-color motion picture version” of The Hobbit by June 30th 1966. Please note: It did not say it had to be an animated movie, and it not say how long the film had to be!

 I knew my screen story line by heart, so I just had to put it through a mind-shredder, and wrote a sort of synopsis, with a few key lines of dialog scattered throughout. I called on close friend, brilliant Czech illustrator, Adolf Born, well known even then, and now the premier book illustrator. We managed to work out a simple storyboard. Adolf came up with a paper cutout scheme, and I worked out some multiple-exposure visual effects and scene continuity. We worked directly under the camera to shoot it.

I got an American friend here, Herb Lass, who worked as a broadcaster for the Czechoslovak Radio’s English language transmissions, to come up to our apartment and record the narration. I borrowed a tape of dramatic movie music from a composer friend, Václav Lidl, which I quickly extracted and cut together, also at home. It was no problem with music rights, as I could assure him that the film would never actually be distributed, but would be – sadly – a mere decoy.

And here is said decoy, in full:

Deitch had been planning a full feature length adaptation, in collaboration with Jiri Trnka. He holds some of the designs for that version, and has promised to post them soon. I’ll point you towards them when he does.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/01/09/video-long-lost-animated-version-of-hobbit-as-made-under-month/

Richard Armitage, Luke Evans | 'The Hobbit' An Unexpected Journey | STV

New details revealed for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

With a year to go until hugely anticipated Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is out in cinemas, new details about the Peter Jackson movie have been released.

14 December 2011 12:30 GMT STV

Thank you to Calexora


With a year to go until hugely anticipated Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is out in cinemas, new details about the Peter Jackson movie have been released.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novel has been split into two films – with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey released on December 14 2012, and The Hobbit: There and Back Again slated for release in December 2012.

Warner Bros. Pictures has made a new one-page synopsis available for the fans and others also intrigued. The synopsis is as follows:

“From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first of two films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. The second film will be The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

Both films are set in Middle-earth 60 years before The Lord of the Rings, which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar®-winning The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever…Gollum.

Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf the Grey, the character he played in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Martin Freeman in the central role of Bilbo Baggins. Also reprising their roles from The Lord of the Rings movies are: Cate Blanchett as Galadriel; Ian Holm as the elder Bilbo; Christopher Lee as Saruman; Hugo Weaving as Elrond; Elijah Wood as Frodo; Orlando Bloom as Legolas; and Andy Serkis as Gollum. The ensemble cast also includes (in alphabetical order) Richard Armitage, John Bell, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Luke Evans, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Barry Humphries, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Evangeline Lilly, Sylvester McCoy, Bret McKenzie, Graham McTavish, Mike Mizrahi, James Nesbitt, Dean O’Gorman, Lee Pace, Mikael Persbrandt, Conan Stevens, Ken Stott, Jeffrey Thomas, and Aidan Turner.

The screenplays for both The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again are by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson. Jackson is also producing the films, together with Fran Walsh and Carolynne Cunningham. The executive producers are Alan Horn, Ken Kamins, Toby Emmerich and Zane Weiner, with Boyens serving as co-producer.

Under Jackson’s direction, both movies are being shot consecutively in digital 3D using the latest camera and stereo technology. Filming is taking place at Stone Street Studios, Wellington, and on location around New Zealand.

Among the creative behind-the-scenes team returning to Jackson’s crew are director of photography Andrew Lesnie, production designer Dan Hennah, conceptual designers Alan Lee and John Howe, composer Howard Shore and make-up and hair designer Peter King. The costumes are designed by Ann Maskrey and Richard Taylor. The score is being composed by Howard Shore.

Taylor is also overseeing the design and production of weaponry, armour and prosthetics which are once again being made by the award-winning Weta Workshop. Weta Digital take on the visual effects for both films, led by the film’s visual effects supervisor, Joe Letteri. Post production will take place at Park Road Post Production in Wellington.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again are productions of New Line Cinema and MGM, with New Line managing production. Warner Bros Pictures is handling worldwide theatrical distribution, with select international territories as well as all international television licensing, being handled by MGM.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released beginning December 14, 2012. The second film, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, is slated for release the following year, beginning December 13, 2013."

A visitation of hobbits

Sat, 26 Nov 2011

Editorial | Peter Jackson | The Hobbit

 

Sir Peter Jackson. Photo by NZPA.

The news yesterday that Sir Peter Jackson and his wife Fran Walsh have secured the future of Wellington's innovative Bats theatre - which has over the years nurtured a small pantheon of original home-grown talent - by buying the central-city building housing it, coincides with his working sojourn to this part of the world. "Wellywood" might like to claim him as its own, but Sir Peter is an all-New Zealand exemplar whose activities are the subject of intense speculation and interest wherever he goes.
The visitation of this visionary film-maker and his 450 cast and crew to Strath Taieri, Queenstown, Te Anau and surrounds has been no exception. So it was serendipitous that the Otago Daily Times was able to speak to the director this week as he took a break from painstakingly piecing together a small part of the filmic puzzle that is his current project: the two Hobbit movies currently in production and which, at an estimated $US250 million apiece, comprise one of the most expensive movie projects ever.   

The Hobbit movies have had a long and troubled gestation: over legal rights to the material; studio finances; the original director Guillermo del Toro pulling out of the project; concerns over possible industrial action; personal illness, not to mention any of the other hundreds of obstacles to be overcome in the routine mounting of creative projects of such scale. But the films are now well in train and, whatever the outcome, Sir Peter is to be congratulated for his persistence and stamina.
The omens for success must be considered good. The two movies are prequels to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which proved huge hits at the box office - and provided the country with international exposure of the kind invaluable to inward tourism and "brand New Zealand".

JRR Tolkien aficionados, a good number of whom might be expected to have an emotional attachment to The Hobbit exceeding that of the later Rings trilogy, may even anticipate these films more keenly than their predecessors.

And with many of the Rings cast members returning to New Zealand to reprise roles or create others, and with additional high-profile actors, along with many of the highly skilled technical crew who helped make such a success of the earlier films, there is little reason to believe the trajectory of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again will be any less spectacular than those of the earlier trilogy.

Still, as the veteran screenwriter William Goldman once wrote on the matter of predicting box office or critical success in the movie business - "nobody knows anything". What is more certain is the legacy of such ventures in this country.

Sir Peter and his collaborators at Weta Workshops and Weta Digital have created world-leading digital movie production facilities in Wellington, and his combination of pragmatic entrepreneurship and can-do enterprise is an example to be emulated across a range of industries, particularly those enmeshed in the high-tech, knowledge-based sector. Not least is the example of how clusters of small specialist high-skills enterprises can develop around a central hub and in turn attract international and onshore business.

While Sir Peter and his team's presence in this neck of the woods is cause to reflect on the film-maker's wider contributions, it is also a reminder of the very features that have brought him to these parts: the landscapes - around Paradise, and Arcadia Station, names which in themselves resonate with magical connotation, and elsewhere - which in some shape or form will be seen as backdrops on screens across the world when the films are released in December 2012 and December 2013 respectively.

As Sir Ian McKellan - who reprises the role of Gandalf the Grey in the films - put it to Sir Peter himself: "When I'm here I don't think that I'm going to work: I think I'm on vacation every single day." That sort of sentiment is a reminder, if we needed one, of the great physical beauty of parts of Otago; and of the pleasure and pride in sharing that with the world. For his part in it all, we owe Sir Peter a vote of thanks.

Otago Daily Times