Peter Jackson Discusses The Hobbit Trailer and Martin Freeman Discusses Meeting Gollum; New Set Photos Released
Posted 12.29.11 by Ryan
For fans of the Lord of the Rings, one of the biggest treats of the holiday season was the release of first trailer for The Hobbit, the prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Shot in two parts by director and co-writer Peter Jackson — The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released next December, followed by The Hobbit: There and Back Again in 2013 — the trailer was put together while the movie was still being shot.
"We're only half way through shooting, so it was just a case of selecting bits from the stuff we'd shot, even though there's still a lot of big scenes we haven't shot yet," Jackson told Adelaide Now after the release of the trailer. "We just wanted to give people a bit of old, a bit of new and a sense of the tone of the film."
During the interview, Jackson revealed that he will spend his holiday season editing together The Hobbit.
I'm taking the chance to sit and actually edit some of the stuff we've been shooting, which I'm enjoying. Editing is one of the fun parts of the process because you get to see the film beginning to come to life. You're shooting it in fragments, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and that's how it exists for a lot of a shoot. When you sit in the cutting room and you edit the movie the fragments begin to take form again into what you have in your imagination.
While Jackson is far from finished working on the two movies, he said that he was pleased so far with the results. "I'm making the version of The Hobbit I'd enjoy seeing, that's what I'm doing," said the director.
The Hobbit trailer ends with Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) walking through a cave with Gollum (voiced and performed in motion-capture by Andy Serkis). Freeman recently told Empire Magazine (via Comic Book Movie) that the scene was one of the first ones he shot (as revealed in Jackson's first video blog of the production). "The first thing I filmed was finding the ring in Gollum’s cave," Freeman revealed. "It’s good to know, but not play, the importance of the Ring. I’m trying to put a bit more heaviness into it. It’s not all comical."
A newcomer to the franchise, Freeman admitted that he tries not to take the material too seriously.
I’m not sure it would have been very helpful if I’d always wanted to play Bilbo Baggins. I’d have come up against someone else’s vision. We’re taking the work seriously, but when we’re looking up at tennis balls that are meant to be trolls, it’s got to be fun.
The shoot appears to be fun in AICN's latest set visit journal, which included a scene where Bilbo catches up with the company of dwarves he's joined for an epic quest, all of whom are riding on horseback. As Freeman told Empire, the actors playing the dwarves were probably relieved to be on horses and not carrying the heavy props required for their characters.
I’ve got ears, the wig and the feet, which three more things than an actor normally has… But then I look over at the dwarves and see what they’re lugging! They’re absolute troopers.
The Hobbit was adapted by Jackson, Fran Walsh, Guillermo del Toro, and Philippa Boyens from J.R.R. Tolkien's original novel. Returning cast members include Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins; Orlando Bloom as Legolas; Hugo Weaving as Elrond; Cate Blanchett as Galadriel;and Sir Christopher Lee as Saruman. The dwarf cast includes Richard Armitage as Thorin, Ken Stott as Balin, Graham McTavish as Dwalin, Stephen Hunter as Bombur, James Nesbitt as Bofur, William Kircher as Bifur, Jed Brophy as Nori, Adam Brown as Ori, Mark Hadlow as Dori, John Callen as Oin, Peter Hambleton as Gloin, Aidan Turner as Kili, and Dean O'Gorman as Fili.