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Middle-earth's favorite diner is always open.
There has been plenty of merchandising tie-ins to director Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, including a safety video for Air New Zealand, but one of the more surprising was an entire Hobbit Menu at Denny's Restaurants, featuring 11 items inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth characters, including a Hobbit Slam, Gandalf's Gobble Melt, Bilbo's Berry Smoothie and more.
watch the video >> Posted 01.03.13 by Ryan -
| Title | Weekend | Total | Analysis |
| The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | $32.9M | $222.7M | Holds on to the top spot in its third week in theaters |
| Django Unchained | $30.7M | $64M | On track to become Tarantino's highest grossing movie ever |
| Les Miserables | $28M | $67.5M | Hit $100M worldwide after 9 days in theaters |
| Parental Guidance | $14.8M | $29.6M | The Billy Crystal comedy is scoring well with young families |
| Jack Reacher | $14M | $44.7M | The Tom Cruise thriller beats out This Is 40 for the number 5 spot |
Addendum: Box Office Mojo is reporting that the 23rd James Bond pic, Skyfall, hit the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office over the weekend.
Posted 12.31.12 by reelz -
Is there one beard that can rule them all?
There has been no shortage of facial hair in the movies of 2012, but what movie character had the best beard of the year? Help decide which beard takes the number one spot by voting in the first annual Reelzie awards.
Vote for your favorite cinematic beard >> Posted 12.17.12 by Mandy -
Give me your hand. Take my hand. Don't you let go. Don't let go.
MORE >> Posted 12.17.12 by Chris -
This weekend sees the opening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which is great news for Lord of the Rings who will get to see plenty returning characters such as the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) aids a young Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and an assembly of dwarves in their quest to unseat the dragon Smaug from the treasure he's guarding. It's only the first of a three-part adaptation, which means there will be plenty more Gandalf to go around for the next few years, even if he will still be one appearance behind another literary-turned-cinematic wizard, Harry Potter's Dumbledore.
Speaking of Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (first played by the late Richard Harris and then by Michael Gambon), this week's arrival of Gandalf got us thinking about our two favorite, long-bearded wizards and which of the two would survive the cybernetic cage that is our Character Cage Match! No doubt, fans of either J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling may already have their minds made up, but we make a case for both and only you can decide which wizard will leave victorious!
check out the characters' strengths and weaknesses before voting >> Posted 12.14.12 by Ryan -
What's in a frame?
With the opening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey at midnight, acclaimed director Peter Jackson has once again brought J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth and all of its denizens to life on the big screen. This time, however, he also brought a little something extra to the moviegoing experience — a faster frame rate. Some critics hate Jackson's decision to shoot at 48 frames/second and even Frodo Baggins himself, Elijah Wood, has said that it took several screenings of the movie before he was used to seeing it at twice the normal speed.
If you're confused about frame rates and what it might mean about your viewing of The Hobbit this weekend, check out this clip from our exclusive interview with Jackson, in which he gives our own Patrick Stinson a little history lesson in film and explains why the movie will be more "immersive" than anything you've ever seen before.
focus on: the hobbitCheck schedule for times
Posted 12.14.12 by BrentJS -
High fantasy adventures on the big screen are among the most thrilling, enthralling movies to watch because of the fantastical people, places and monsters that populate them. They allow us to escape from our comparatively mundane lives by offering us a glimpse into another world, another reality where magic is real and noble heroes go on quests and do battle with dragons and other fantastical creatures. However, even some of the most fantastic elements of this genre of popular fiction are not the stuff of myth, but of history. In fact, not too long ago, diminutive "Hobbits" living in Indonesia were forced to protect their "Hobbit holes" from the deadly dragons that claimed the island as their own.
Middle-earth on Earth??? >> Posted 12.14.12 by BrentJS -
Tonight sees the opening of what is bound to be one of the biggest movie franchises of the next few years. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in theaters nationwide tonight at midnight, and Reelz has some inside info on Middle Earth. Focus On: The Hobbit is taking a look at the first installment of The Hobbit franchise, including interviews with cast and crew members, behind-the-scenes exclusives, and footage from the New York premiere. The show premieres tonight at 1:30am ET/ 10:30pm PT, but we have a web-exclusive clip that you can check out right now.
Richard Armitage plays Thorin Oakenshield, and it turns out that it's a bit of a challenge to charge into battle while decked out in dwarf gear. Luckily, director Peter Jackson was around to demonstrate how the son of a dwarf king would charge, and it apparently involves dropping one's pants. Watch the clip above to get the whole story.
focus on: the hobbitCheck schedule for times
Posted 12.13.12 by Mandy -
There can only be one Hobbit movie. Even though there will be three. You know what we mean.
If there's a potentially profitable movie on its way in Hollywood, good money says that a low-budget knock-off is also in the works. For instance, for almost every Paranormal Activity movie, there's a Paranormal Entity, a straight-to-DVD franchise that has already released its third installment: Paranormal Entity 3: The Exorcism Tapes, aka Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes. The movie is actually based on the same story used for 2005's The Exorcism of Emily Rose and 2006's Requiem but released under the Paranormal Entity name in the U.K. because, well, trying to sound like several movies is more profitable than trying to sound like one.
One of the production companies responsible for these "mockbusters" is The Asylum, though their latest production, Age of the Hobbits, drew ire from Warner Bros. who filed an injunction against the movie. The reason? The studio thought the release of Age of the Hobbits would cause "confusion" amongst audiences and a California Federal judge has agreed, granting a temporary restraining order against The Asylum thereby postponing the DVD release of the movie. From one look at the Age of the Hobbits trailer, it's hard to believe anyone would confuse it with the J.R.R. Tolkien version, though attempting to confuse audiences is how Asylum has paid their bills for years.
watch the trailer and read about the fight for the word "hobbit" >> Posted 12.13.12 by Ryan -
Extreme fandom manifests itself in many ways: fan fiction, fan films, and, in worst case scenarios, stalking. And, despite the amount of fame one achieves, it's hard for anyone to not "geek out" on their favorite stuff. Take Stephen Colbert of ComedyCentral's The Colbert Report who managed to devote an entire week to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and interviewed members of the cast and director Peter Jackson. While doing celebrity interviews isn't exactly new, Colbert is a notorious fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, with knowledge of Tolkien bordering on the academic since he speaks elvish. Colbert was even invited to the New Zealand set of The Hobbit while the movie was in production.
"He’s such an expert on Tolkien, he really is, he can quote it at length," Ian McKellen told THR about Colbert. That expertise was on display when Jackson appeared for his interview. While discussing The Hobbit's recent transformation into a trilogy, the director asked Colbert to explain what Tolkien's intent was for the appendices at the end of the Return of the King novel, which Jackson is using as further source material.
watch the interview >> Posted 12.10.12 by Ryan