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The Hobbit - Official Thread of Officially In Production

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Edmond Dantès;41564370 said:
Another one.

i0s0uNoCa1HDI.jpg


Crown of leaves indeed.

Loki and Sherlock fangirls will go crazy over this guy.
 
Edmond Dantès;41615048 said:
I think Kili and Fili will elevated somewhat and second only to Thorin considering the family connection and the
their demise at the end, it'll be a far more sorrowful ending if the audience have a deeper connection to the aforementioned dwarves.

Yeah I can see that.
 

Kud Dukan

Member
A few pieces of news: the third Hobbit film will be released on July 18, 2014 and will be titled "The Hobbit: There and Back Again". The second film now has the title of "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug". See here.

Really like the title of the second film.
 

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
A few pieces of news: the third Hobbit film will be released on July 18, 2014 and will be titled "The Hobbit: There and Back Again". The second film now has the title of "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug". See here.

Really like the title of the second film.
That was what most of us expected. Nice to see confirmation of it.

Non-Tolkien fans are going to have a hell of a hard time pronouncing the title of the second film.
 

Mr Cola

Brothas With Attitude / The Wrong Brotha to Fuck Wit / Die Brotha Die / Brothas in Paris
well its official

film 1 - An unexpected journey
film 2 - The desolation of Smaug
film 3 - There and back again

film 3 to be released july 2014
 

Dany

Banned
I know nothing about the hobbit but DAMN that title for the second part sounds cool.

Smart move to have III 6 months away from II.
 

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
I think this pretty much confirms my earlier theory. Smaug the Tremendous will be the Saruman of the The Hobbit and be the villain at the forefront of the middle film.
 

MrCheez

President/Creative Director of Grumpyface Studios
Desolation of Smaug... welp, as a first impression I don't really like it :/

I can't quite put my finger on it, but it just doesn't feel like it fits with the others. Perhaps it's because of how specific it is (calling out an actual character's name is a first). For some reason this just doesn't feel very Hobbity to me.

I'm also not sure if it flows too well... wondering if saying it out loud as part of a conversation is going to feel clunky and awkward.

Oh well, hoping I'll get used to it
 

Curufinwe

Member
Edmond Dantès;41615367 said:
He's already quite popular among women in general after his performances in Soldier's Girl and The Fall.

I didn't realize it was the guy from Pushing Daises till my wife pointed it out.
 
I love the shot of the Uruk hai @0:16 in that trailer, with the banner edited to have the Red Eye and not the White Hand.

The next Hobbit trailer should be this month, right?
 

richiek

steals Justin Bieber DVDs
Here's an interesting article that encapsulates the misgivings of those wary of Jackson making the Hobbit into a trilogy.

Peter Jackson's three Hobbit films suggest he is running on empty

The critique is pretty simple – Jackson and his team are stretching a simple story beyond reasonable limits to make more money from ticket sales. Harry Potter was the first franchise to split books, turning the Deathly Hallows into two separate movies. Although there was some creative rationale for the split – Deathly Hallows was a long book, and it meant we got two tonally distinct movies – it's also true Warner Bros probably increased its grosses by many hundreds of millions in the process. Other franchises, including Twilight and The Hunger Games, have since followed suit. Jackson, though, seems to be taking this idea to extremes, and many fans are up in arms at what they see as a blatant cash grab.

I'm not sure I agree this will be a total bust: I generally like my blockbusters slow and introspective, so this change may work for me as a viewer. I'm also not sure money is the only factor. In fact, I think something much more dispiriting has motivated the decision: creative stagnation.

Jackson started out as a director of low-budget horror movies in New Zealand. Although he came to Hollywood in the late 1990s, he had never had any major hits, and his background meant he was an unusual figure to take on a property as big as LOTR. But Warner Bros and New Line took a chance on him, and were rewarded with a remarkably successful series of films – successful at the box office, but also successful as creatively daring and accomplished movies.

Since then, though, Jackson has struggled to recreate the success. His long-gestating King Kong made money, but was also bloated and oddly shoddy (for example, the original soundtrack was dumped weeks before release, and a bland generic score took its place, which undercut many of the film's intended emotional beats). The Lovely Bones has its supporters, but it was a critical and commercial failure.

Jackson continued to work as a producer, and following a protracted battle for the rights, he had hoped to oversee The Hobbit in that position. When Guillermo del Toro dropped out, Jackson took the director's chair, and we end up back where we were 10 years ago – with one key difference. When Jackson took on LOTR, he was an ambitious outsider with a daring project. Now he is an established director on his uppers, revisiting past glories in lieu of anything better to do. Directing The Hobbit is arguably a sign that Jackson is out of ideas. His other projects haven't quite delivered in various ways, and so he has returned to terrain he covered successfully back in the day.
 

ascii42

Member
Directing The Hobbit is arguably a sign that Jackson is out of ideas. His other projects haven't quite delivered in various ways, and so he has returned to terrain he covered successfully back in the day.
That's a spectacularly cynical way of looking at it.
 
Well its obvious that Jackson and new line wants to use all the material they have access to.
And I dont see anything wrong with that.

its not like they will do the 2 hobbit films and then use all the extra material from the appendix to do a new stand alone film a couple of years later.

its not smart and it will cost them a lot more money.

if they had access to the silmarillion, well then that would be a different story, then they could turn that one into a new film.
 

Loxley

Member
That's a spectacularly cynical way of looking at it.

No kidding. The best part about that sentence is that the author states it without any evidence to support it whatsoever. Jackson decided to make a third Hobbit film ergo he must be creatively bankrupt as a director? Wouldn't some consider expanding a fairly short book into three full-length films a creative challenge? My stance on this whole thing has always been Jackson, WETA & Co have yet to give me any reason to think they couldn't pull this off successfully. We just have to wait and see.

Part of me just wants the trailer to come out so people will quit whining -_-
 

Daft_Cat

Member
No kidding. The best part about that sentence is that the author states it without any evidence to support it whatsoever. Jackson decided to make a third Hobbit film ergo he must be creatively bankrupt as a director? Wouldn't some consider expanding a fairly short book into three full-length films a creative challenge? My stance on this whole thing has always been Jackson, WETA & Co have yet to give me any reason to think they couldn't pull this off successfully. We just have to wait and see.

Part of me just wants the trailer to come out so people will quit whining -_-

Not to mention the fact that Jackson was always for the idea of filming the Hobbit back when LOTR was coming out. It wasn't until all that nasty business with the New Line president, followed by the MGM stuff that his involvement was ever in doubt.

He LOVES Tolkien. Adapting his work for cinema has got to be one of the most creatively stimulating tasks he could ask for.
 

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
So do we have any info about the new trailer? Date, about how long, new characters appearing?
Expected by many on the 21st of this month to coincide with the 75th anniversary of The Hobbit's publication.

Length: usual running time of two and a half minutes.

Characters: More from the first film who haven't been seen yet.

There is a small possibility that we may see a trilogy trailer, showcasing all three films reminiscent of the LOTR trilogy trailer. But frankly, the time for that kind of trailer has passed.
 
I wonder if we'll have a lot of newcomers watching the first movie, being too impatient to wait on the rest of the story, and watching the Rankin Bass cartoon.
 
Edmond Dantès;41747625 said:
I'd rather have them reading the book than the animation.

Of course, but these are the teeming masses of Blockbuster audiences. They will need a quick fix. I don't recommend it over the book, obviously.

Also yeah, Smaug is pretty dang badass. He's one of the few things about the cartoon that has a shot at giving the film version a run for his money.
 

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
Goblin King possibly revealed.

Character-10-Grand-Gobelin.jpg



Looks as horrifying and disgusting as I imagined him to be.

Very impressed with all the new designs so far. Seems as if Guillermo's influence is still being felt.
 
Edmond Dantès;41749857 said:
Goblin King possibly revealed.

Character-10-Grand-Gobelin.jpg



Looks as horrifying and disgusting as I imagined him to be.

Very impressed with all the new designs so far. Seems as if Guillermo's influence is still being felt.

I said goddamn. That's horrifying.

And awesome.
 
Edmond Dantès;41749857 said:
Goblin King possibly revealed.

Character-10-Grand-Gobelin.jpg



Looks as horrifying and disgusting as I imagined him to be.

Very impressed with all the new designs so far. Seems as if Guillermo's influence is still being felt.

vogon_kep.jpg


Reminds me a little too much of these guys. Seems odd to choose a pink skin tone, Jacksons Goblins are generally a murky green.
 

Loxley

Member
An article at tor.com covers "What We Learned About The Hobbit at Dragon-Con"; some of these aren't really spoilers so much as confirmation/further speculation as to what the films will expand upon. Overall some pretty cool bits of information.

- Although Sylvester McCoy as Radagast the Brown is rumored to have been included in the London filming of the White Council scene with Saruman, Gandalf, Galadriel, and Elrond (pictured above), he was not in White Council scenes screened at this year's San Diego Comic Con.
- In what is sure to be an instant internet meme: You will see Radagast riding through the Mirkwood on a sleigh drawn by huge jackrabbits.
- Principal photography wrapped on July of this year, shortly before Peter Jackson confirmed The Hobbit would be three films. Some additional filming took place this August.
- Stephen Fry's Master of Laketown is a nasty piece of work, as is his “conniving” sidekick Alfred.
- Aflred is played by actor Ryan Gage, who was originally cast as
Frodo's dad Drogo Baggins, suggesting that we will see Frodo's dad in the films.
- Speaking of Frodo, Elijah Wood and the older Bilbo, Ian Holm, are listed in the cast for all three films, lending further credence to the rumor that they will be bookending/narrating the films.
- Figwit returns! Bret Mackenzie will appear in The Hobbit as Lindir, an elf in Rivendell who is present during a poetry reading by Bilbo at Elrond's house.
- Thrain and Thror appear in the first film and we will most likely see them in earlier (and happier) times as part of sequences that illustrate the dwarven race of Middle-earth in its glory days. The panel was split on whether we'll see the history of Moria, such as the battle at the Gates of Moria.
- It was also speculated that Radagast's role will be to tie the storylines of Bilbo and the dwarves to the story of The Necromancer.
- We will get better wargs in the Hobbit movies as the production team was not happy with them in the original LOTR trilogy.
- We'll see Legolas and his father Thranduil spar.
- The goblins in the Misty Mountains are “super gross.” Considering the orcs we've already seen, that's saying something!
- Guillermo Del Toro's influence on the visual style and script of the movies will not be apparent in the films. The scripts for the movies are constantly being reworked, akin to the production on the first LOTR trilogy, and no shooting has been done on the initial Hobbiton set addition that Del Toro had built. (That set apparently is very much in Del Toro's style of queasy otherworldliness.)
- An early leak of a Hobbit-era Hallmark ornament revealed Gandalf with a different staff in The Hobbit films, appearing as a brown wooden version of his Gandalf the White staff.
- The picture seemed innocuous enough to the OneRing.net staff until Warner Bros. asked them to quickly take it down. Perhaps the toy doth reveal too much?


Smaug:

- What Smaug looks like is being kept a complete secret. During a five-week stint that Larry Curtis, the DragonCon Tolkien track coordinator, spent working on The Hobbit there were absolutely no trace of the dragon anywhere on or off set. The offices of illustrators John Howe and Alan Lee were similarly vacant of Smaug sketches.
- Curtis also pointed out that Gollum wasn't created until after initial filming work was underway with Andy Serkis, so it's very possible Smaug simply hasn't been designed yet.
The panel suggested that if fans want an idea as to what Smaug will probably look like, they should pick up a copy of John Howe's Forging Dragons.
- Benedict Cumberbatch is in the cast list for all three films as The Necromancer but is only credited as the voice of Smaug in the cast list for the second film, The Desolation of Smaug, suggesting that we'll only get the dragon in one film.


The Story of the Three Films:

- The movies focus on the journies of three characters: Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield, and Gandalf. The panel was very insistent that Thorin will not be portrayed as a supporting character; that is he is absolutely a main character in these films. Bilbo and Thorin's journies have emotional arcs to them, while Gandalf is more plot-heavy.
- POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD: This was entirely speculation on the part of the panel, but they believe An Unexpected Journey will now feature a lot of dwarf history and will follow Bilbo and the dwarves into the mountains, with the Great Goblin serving as a Big Bad for the first film. Bilbo will meet Gollum, then be pursued out of the caves and into the woods where they'll finally meet with Gandalf. As they're all cornered by orcs, goblins, and flame, the eagles will arrive to rescue them and the movie will end. With the next film obviously focusing on Smaug. SPOILERS END.
 

Kud Dukan

Member
Some good information in there. Very intrigued by the idea of getting a lot of dwarf history. I'm just ready to see the first one at this point. Why isn't it December yet?!
 
I'm so friggin ready to see more Gandalf the Grey. Also Thorin having even bigger part than he had in the book. It's been a while since I read it but Thorin allready felt pretty major character.
 

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
An article at tor.com covers "What We Learned About The Hobbit at Dragon-Con"; some of these aren't really spoilers so much as confirmation/further speculation as to what the films will expand upon. Overall some pretty cool bits of information.
Cum grano salis, but interesting nonetheless.

The first film ending with the eagles doesn't sit right with me. It would leave far too much material for the second film and potentially compromise Smaug's screen time.

The barrel ride still seems the most natural cut-off point for the first film with the Lonely Mountain looming in the distance.
 
Thanks for posting all that info. HYPED! I am also a-ok with three films and dont think this is some Twilight cash grab. These actors are 10 years older than when they filmed LOTR in some instances... so lets do as much material as possible before some visibly age. Id rather these appendices were done now before Cate Blanchett and Elrond prune up... and before Sir Ian Mccellan passes.

EDIT: Im also a big Peter Jackson fan and love his combonations of sets, models, and cgi. If these movies were done by Lucas.... we would have CGI hobbits and even a CGI ring of power. Gollum worked since he was so expressive and memorable... unlike Jar Jar who was plain annoying and embarassing.
 

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
Hobbit will be good bro
Jay Rei loves to catch out unsuspecting guests with a little movie magic.

"How old do you think that rock is? I got it from the pit," the 43-year-old said, pointing to a heavy, rugby-ball sized sharp stone on his kitchen table.

Seconds later he has thrown it, only for the horrified catcher to discover it is just a synthetic set-prop - as light as a sponge.

"I love getting people like that," he laughed.

Formerly of New Plymouth and now back in home town Patea, Mr Rei has just returned after wrapping up his two years of work on the The Hobbit films. Now a 10-year film industry veteran, he has worked in the rigging department of the Lord of Rings trilogy, Last Samurai, King Kong and Avatar.

Mr Rei said The Hobbit films are shaping up as the best yet.

"It will be good, bro, I promise you."

He has been everywhere with director Peter Jackson at over 12 shooting locations around New Zealand, from the Matamata countryside to "under the mountain" in Ohakune and the lakes of Te Anau and Tekapo.

"I might try and push him next time [on filming here], give Taranaki a boost."

Mr Rei's work on sets is to rig the lights and green screens so everything is in-sync. It is a crucial component because while post-production can darken scenes if desired, they cannot lighten the footage - imperfections mean costly re-shoots. While not having actually read the famous J.R.R. Tolkien novel, Mr Rei dismisses the critics who say the recent announcement of three Hobbit films is stretching the source material too thin.

"That would depend on their comprehension.

"Making a book into a movie is a big deal.

"Pete's got an amazing brain, brilliant. He tries every variation there is. We got quite enough footage to do the two movies we were away for, and now the third."

He also praised British actor Martin Freeman, aka Bilbo, as being the best he has ever seen. Among his souvenirs are gold coins from Smaug the Dragon's lair, a 13-year-old bottle of wine from Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf), an aged-carved picture frame which he gave to his mother and a hand-made elvish wine bottle which will stay a family heirloom.

There is also the card from "Pete" and producing partner Fran Walsh to all the crew.

"We finally got there . . . and back again," it reads.

"We could not have done it without you - a huge and heartfelt thank you."
Source
 

Loxley

Member
Man, quite a few people who've worked on the films in various fashions have really gone out of their way to praise Freeman's Bilbo, makes me look back on the fan speculation that David Tennant would get the role and giggle. Short of using time-warping technology to make Ian Holm younger by about 20 years, Freeman was definitely the best choice from the day the project was greenlit.

Still excited that we'll get to see Holm as Bilbo again, even if it's brief.
 

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
Man, quite a few people who've worked on the films in various fashions have really gone out of their way to praise Freeman's Bilbo, makes me look back on the fan speculation that David Tennant would get the role and giggle. Short of using time-warping technology to make Ian Holm younger by about 20 years, Freeman was definitely the best choice from the day the project was greenlit.

Still excited that we'll get to see Holm as Bilbo again, even if it's brief.
Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy were also mentioned when the Bilbo casting rumors flared up all those moons ago.

McAvoy I could see, but Radcliffe, nope.
 

agrajag

Banned
Edmond Dantès;41795985 said:
Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy were also mentioned when the Bilbo casting rumors flared up all those moons ago.

McAvoy I could see, but Radcliffe, nope.

I'd be okay with that!
 
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