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Over the weekend, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey reached a milestone when it joined the rest of the Lord of the Rings trilogy in earning $300 million in domestic box office — and neared ever closer to $1 billion worldwide in the process. Obviously, the first of director Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's novel has done well financially, but audiences and critics alike were polarized by the results of the movie, with the possible exception of the movie's dazzling visual effects, which were nominated for an Academy Award.
Likely in anticipation of this Sunday's Oscar telecast, WETA Digital has released a visual effects reel revealing the work that went into the movie. Highlights from the video include Ian McKellen basically act alone in a green room as Gandalf and the first meeting between Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and Gollum (Andy Serkis, in his motion-capture outfit) prior to its digital transformation.
watch the video >> Posted 02.19.13 by Ryan -
There's already been plenty of evidence of the extremes fans will go to for director Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Prior to the movie's opening, another fan took all the movie's trailers and TV spots and edited them together into a chronological trailer, while TV personality and J.R.R. Tolkien aficionado Stephen Colbert dedicated an entire week of his show to The Hobbit, even schooling Jackson on Tolkien along the way. Recently, another fan ate Denny's entire Hobbit-inspired menu in under 20 minutes, and there was also another fan who recreated Bilbo Baggins' home of Bag End in his living room using only balloons.
Welshman Simon Dale took his Tolkien-inspired building a step further than balloons, using stone, mud and reclaimed materials to create his very own Hobbit-hole. "I was not a builder or carpenter," Dale explained on his website (via Inquisitr). My main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverance and a mate or two to give a lift now and again."
check out some photos and watch the Office mashup trailer >> Posted 01.07.13 by Ryan -
Typical hobbit.
We're still a little dizzy from the footage revealed in last month's second full-length trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (and the subsequent extra scenes), yet, as the promotional campaign shifts to the small screen, more snippets of footage have arrived in the movie's latest TV spot.
Based on author J.R.R. Tolkien's first trip to Middle-Earth, The Hobbit is a more whimsical tale than the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as evidenced in the TV spot, which sees Gandalf (Ian McKellen) trying to convince Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) to leave the comforts of his beloved Shire, interspersed with footage of Bilbo battling trolls and Gollum (Andy Serkis). As McKellen revealed to Coming Soon during a set visit, the lighter tone should be reflected in the final product.
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watch the TV spot and read more from mckellen, freeman and jackson on the adaptation >> Posted 10.26.12 by Ryan -
More Hobbit footage already? We'll take it!
No doubt fans have already repeatedly devoured the new footage revealed in the second trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, but there's already more that has arrived online. The Warner Bros.' official website for The Hobbit offers users a chance to create their own ending to the latest trailer, with five different moments to choose from for the trailer's end. One of those options was used by the studio already, the one where the giant troll lands on top of the dwarves. The other endings include an exchange between Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and Gollum (Andy Serkis); Gandalf (Ian McKellen) revealing to Bilbo that bet he had with the dwarves; Bilbo learning an unsatisfying truth about his sword; and Bilbo examining his contract to join the company of dwarves to attempt to "burgle" the treasure that's being protected by the dragon Smaug. Like the troll fall, the endings all reveal the humorous side of the movie, and, luckily, Bleeding Cool has compiled them all into one video so you don't have to watch the trailer four different times (not that you wouldn't want to).
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watch the new footage >> Posted 09.22.12 by Ryan -
Return to Middle-earth with new still images from The Hobbit
If you're a fan of high fantasy, then you're probably already drinking a pint of Gaffer's ale and singing "The Road Goes Ever On" in celebration of Tolkien Week along with the thousands of other J.R.R. Tolkien fans around the world — that is, assuming you haven't been stuck in the Mines of Moria since 1978, the year the American Tolkien Society first proclaimed Tolkien Week and set Sept. 22nd as Hobbit Day. With the first part of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings prequels opening in less than three months, Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema and MGM decided to join in on the fun by releasing a huge batch of new still images from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, with a new trailer to follow later today. Pour yourself another pint and enjoy the new still images with us as we reminisce about seven of the things that we have been missing about Middle-Earth and are looking forward to when Tolkien's creations return to the big screen this winter.
see the new images >> Posted 09.19.12 by BrentJS -
Warner Bros. has been keeping footage under lock and key for their upcoming The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first part of what is now a three-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. The first trailer dropped last December, and a slightly altered version — we're talking maybe 4 seconds of slightly different footage — arrived last month, while Peter Jackson's eighth production video revealed snippets of footage that Jackson had shown at this year's Comic-Con.
Luckily, Warner Bros. has released a new gallery of images with the launch of their new Hobbit movie app. Most of the images are dedicated to Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and the company of dwarves he joins in order to "burgle" the treasure that the dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) is protecting in Lonely Mountain, and, in particular, there are some great looks at Richard Armitage as dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield, and Aidan Turner as Kili, though most of the other dwarves are represented as well.
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In lieu of another trailer or releasing any new footage, director Peter Jackson has done an excellent job of keeping fans engaged with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first part of Jackson's two-part prequel for The Lord of the Rings, with production videos from the New Zealand set (the seventh of which was released early last month). Luckily, Entertainment Weekly has released several new photos (via The Playlist), as the movie is featured on its most recent magazine cover.
While the photos aren't exactly revelatory, they'll have to do until Jackson and Warner Bros. release something new (likely at Comic-Con), but they do offer new looks at Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, Richard Armitage as dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield, Hugo Weaving as Elrond, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Andy Serkis as Gollum (underneath the layers of animation), and several of the dwarves in barrels (Graham McTavish as Dwalin, Adam Brown as Ori, Ken Stott as Balin, James Nesbitt as Bofur, Mark Hadlow as Dori and Jed Brophy as Nori). There's also a few looks at Ian McKellen as Gandalf, who promised EW that fans will be pleased with the two-part epic.
check out the photos >> Posted 07.03.12 by Ryan -
Fans haven't seen any more official footage from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first chapter of the two-part prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, since the first trailer arrived at the end of last year. However, director-producer-co-writer Peter Jackson has been good about releasing production video on his Facebook page.
Starting where the fifth production video left off, the latest peek into Jackson's The Hobbit continues to show beautiful shots of the New Zealand landscape used for the movie's sets, with commentary from some of the dwarves in the cast — Bifur (William Kircher), Kili (Aidan Turner), Fili (Dean O'Gorman), Ori (Adam Brown), Nori (Jed Brophy), and Dori (Mark Hadlow). The video also has Martin Freeman, dressed as from Bilbo Baggins, and Andy Serkis in his capacity as second unit director. (Serkis also returns as Gollum (in motion-capture) in the movie.)
watch the video >> Posted 03.01.12 by Ryan -
Director and co-writer Peter Jackson is certainly taking a few liberties for his upcoming, two-part Lord of the Rings prequel of The Hobbit, bringing back characters from the The Lord of the Rings trilogy like Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), and Legolas (Orlando Bloom), even though they are absent from J.R.R. Tolkien's original book. However, Evangeline Lilly's character of Tauriel the Woodland Elf has the distinction of being created entirely by Jackson and co-writers Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh, and Guillermo del Toro.
Out of concern for Tolkein's loyal fans, Lilly admitted last September that she was "very concerned" that fans will consider her the "black mark" in the movie because Tauriel is an invented character, which may have been part of her motivation to reveal to Yahoo! that she prepared so much for the Hobbit shoot that she felt she did about "four times as much time preparing" as she did camera work.
read lilly's comments and see the new photo >> Posted 01.31.12 by Ryan -
Since the December release of the first trailer for the upcoming The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, fans have been starved for more images from the two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's novel (Unexpected Journey opens in December, followed by The Hobbit: There and Back Again in 2013), so USA Today fed the hunger by releasing a new photo of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, the protagonist of the story (played by Ian Holm in the Lord of the Rings trilogy).
The still isn't filled with action — it only reveals a lone Bilbo walking through a forest — but follows Freeman's recent (sarcastic) admission to MovieWeb that he would like Bilbo to have a love scene in at least one of the two movies.
I think he's [Bilbo] had sex. I'm not sure. I'm trying to convince [director and co-writer] Peter [Jackson] to write that scene in..."
Jackson explains taking over for guillermo del toro >> Posted 01.07.12 by Ryan