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[Edmond Dantès]

How dare Peter Jackson desecrate the books with an Elf/Orc romance! I am OUTRAGED at these invented scenes which go against everything in the canonical books. Tolkien is spinning in his grave.

Well technically elves and orcs did get it on in Melkor's dungeons, so it's in keeping with Tolkien's legendarium.

 

[ScreenSplitter]

Well technically elves and orcs did get it on in Melkor's dungeons, so it's in keeping with Tolkien's legendarium.

I never liked that rather awkward implication... I mean, did they just do it out of frustration or were they forced to? SO many questions.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

I never liked that rather awkward implication... I mean, did they just do it out of frustration or were they forced to? SO many questions.

Forced to by Melkor I suppose. He was the mightiest of the Ainu afterall, so his powers of persuasion over mere elves who hadn't been to Valinor or seen the Two Trees would have been immense. These were elves taken in during the dark years of Arda.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

Runtime confirmed as 2h40m.

awesome

 

[Mr Cola]

Evangeline Lilly is genuinely stunning

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Evangeline Lilly is genuinely stunning

Might give Arwen and Galadriel a run for their money.

 

[Eidan]

Evangeline Lilly is in this movie? I had no clue! I love me some Kate.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Evangeline Lilly is in this movie? I had no clue! I love me some Kate.

Pretty substantial role in the second and third film supposedly, might be seen in the first film.

 

[Ainaurdur]

Might give Arwen and Galadriel a run for their money.

Arwen, perhaps. But Galadriel?


...sacrilege.

 

[Loxley]

Arwen, perhaps. But Galadriel?


...sacrilege.

Preach on, brother.

 

[Ainaurdur]

Preach on, brother.

Heheh. I liked Blanchett before she got the role of Galadriel. And afterwards it made me go back and want to watch some of her roles I may have missed before.

Really enjoy her way of acting and how she handles herself in her craft. Not sure if I can recall any of her performances I did not like. Or if there were, I may have forgotten them. Though now I suppose I have only seen about half of the movies she has been in. More to look forward to catching up on!

 

[Branduil]

I never liked that rather awkward implication... I mean, did they just do it out of frustration or were they forced to? SO many questions.

Tolkien didn't like it either. He never really made up his mind on the origin of Orcs.

 

[shira]

Great covers all, but I like this one.

From the sapphire eyes kid thread
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=496939

This is how you make films. All the best ones are long. Love it.

I don't want to end up buying multiple copies though.
DVD original
DVD extended
DVD extended special
BRD original
BRD extended
iTunes original
iTunes extended

That's a lot for any budget.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Tolkien didn't like it either. He never really made up his mind on the origin of Orcs.

He was rather sure near the end of his life as to the ultimate origins of the Orcs. Men that Melkor ensnared long before their race took part in the History of the Elves. The dark history that the race of men were so reluctant (except the likes of Andreth) to speak of pertains to the following. Melkor taking fair form and coming to men as a saviour, poisoning their minds against Eru and in the process placing the seed of doubt in their minds, that Sauron would later take advantage of. This is when the Gift of Iluvatar (death, for their spirits to be free of Arda and not to be bound to it like the elves) was tainted and the fear of death placed in the minds of men. The worse of the men that Melkor encountered, degenerates if you will were the ones taken by him and engineered into what we recognize as Orcs.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Hobbit info from Empire

Spoiler

"hints the dragon will make a fleeting appearance in the first film, most likely in the prologue, and will remain as liquid tongued as the book's memorable villain (he is a character not a monster)."

Spoiler

"The spiders will speak more as a psychic communication", adds Jackson of Mirkwood's nest of arachnids (now in film two). "Only Bilbo hears them."

Spoiler

"Talking of subtexts, the Great Goblin, portrayed by Barry Humphries (as in Dame Edna), comes partly based on Kim Jong-il, late, unbeloved Dark Lord of North Korea. Grotesque is the key word here: "He is a rather childish character who enjoys tormenting the dwarves," says Jackson of the ruler of a ramshackle mountain kingdom built on set and in the fathomless mainframes of Weta Digital. "The goblins are a rather putrid, mouldy race of people."

Spoiler

Radagast, but not Cirdan, is a member of the White Council

Spoiler

No Mirkwood until The Desolation of Smaug

Prologue confirmed.

Looking forward to seeing the Battle of Azanulbizar.

Shame that the White Council is so bare boned. No Glorfindel, Erestor, Cirdan, Celeborn and no representative from the Rangers of the North.

 

[Little Old Man]

Hobbit info from Empire
Shame that the White Council is so bare boned. No Glorfindel, Erestor, Cirdan, Celeborn and no representative from the Rangers of the North.

It is sad that is the case given that Jackson has three films to work with. I presume it is more to do with keeping things straightforward for the audience more than anything else.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

More spoilers:

Spoiler

Radagast and Gandalf will be together when battling evil in Dol Guldur.

Spoiler

Radagast is turned into a moth

Spoiler

Talking purse to be included in extended cut, not theatrical

Spoiler

Eagles battle bats in the Battle of the Five Armies

Spoiler

Thrain breaks Gandalf's arm in Dol Guldur

Spoiler

Tauriel's in love with an elf called Elros

Also, Radagast, Gandalf, Elrond images:

http://s574.photobucket.com/albums/...ecial/?action=view&current=EMPIRE1212p122.jpg

http://s574.photobucket.com/albums/...ecial/?action=view&current=EMPIRE1212p123.jpg

http://s574.photobucket.com/albums/...pecial/?action=view&current=EMPIRE1212p66.jpg

 

[Retro]

More spoilers:

Spoiler

Radagast is turned into a moth

Kinda Clever, a nice little wink and nod towards the LotR movies... Not sure I like it, but I don't hate it.

 

[Loxley]

Hobbit info from Empire





Prologue confirmed.

Looking forward to seeing the Battle of Azanulbizar.

Shame that the White Council is so bare boned. No Glorfindel, Erestor, Cirdan, Celeborn and no representative from the Rangers of the North.

The complete absence of Glorfindel from the films is really the only one that I regret, I always liked him as a character. But I'm super-excited about the prologue, Fellowship's was really well done. I'm curious who'll do the narration for it this time, maybe Thorin? Richard Armitage has a great voice so he'd be a good fit.

 

[Wiggum2007]

Fuck you Peter I wanted to experience the talking purse in all its imax glory

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Kinda Clever, a nice little wink and nod towards the LotR movies... Not sure I like it, but I don't hate it.

Effective way to explain his absence from The Lord of the Rings trilogy without killing him off.

The complete absence of Glorfindel from the films is really the only one that I regret, I always liked him as a character. But I'm super-excited about the prologue, Fellowship's was really well done. I'm curious who'll do the narration for it this time, maybe Thorin? Richard Armitage has a great voice so he'd be a good fit.

He‘d be perfect as it‘s dwarven history that‘ll be explored. Galadriel narrating wouldn‘t really fit this time.

Fuck you Peter I wanted to experience the talking purse in all its imax glory

I'll be whispering

Spoiler

Ere, 'oo are you?

during that scene.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

An Elrond spoiler:

Spoiler

Now The Hobbit has expanded to a trilogy, his [Elrond's] scenes with The White Council at Dol Guldur, dark stronghold of this trilogy's mysterious antagonist, "The Necromancer," have been moved to second film The Desolation of Smaug.

"And who's going to be in that?!" Weaving exclaims. "I don't know whether Elrond is, whether I've got more to shoot because of that, whether I'm a part of that. I'm not in the book, but kind of everyone's involved in the book whilst not necessarily named specfically. So you could imagine that Elrond might be there in some way..."

Second film will be packed full.

I wonder how much that leaves for the third film and how long The Battle of the Five Armies will be.

Bifur:

Spoiler

Bifur is mentally-challenged and only speaks in Dwarvish. Something happens to his axe, but he can't say what.

We'll finally hearing some Khuzdul in spoken dialogue, rather than the chanting found in the Khazad-dum and Glamdring tracks from the score.

Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!

 

[SiegfriedFM]

Effective way to explain his absence from The Lord of the Rings trilogy without killing him off.

Eh. Isn't the point that he's off happily doing other stuff? I'd hate for them to retcon it into him being

Spoiler

that specific moth

.

That's pretty much up there with Sauron

Spoiler

returning as undead Smaug

in terms of potential movie-destroying changes, much like Arwen at Helm's Deep or Sauron duel at the gates would have been.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Eh. Isn't the point that he's off happily doing other stuff? I'd hate for them to retcon it into him being

Spoiler

that specific moth

.

That's pretty much up there with Sauron

Spoiler

returning as undead Smaug

in terms of potential movie-destroying changes, much like Arwen at Helm's Deep or Sauron duel at the gates would have been.

Some people assume that his disappearance from Rhosgobel during The Lord of the Rings indicates his death at the hands of Saruman or his cronies. Peter and co probably think this is a better way of dealing with his character.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Hobbit set report

http://collider.com/the-hobbit-set-visit/205464/

Some interesting tidbits:

The consensus seems to be that the scale of The Hobbit is bigger than The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Richard Armitage grew his own beard, rather than donning a fake one, in order to play Thorin.

Gandalf will at times be more light-hearted in The Hobbit than Lord of the Rings, but there is added intensity in his relationship with Thorin.

They turned to Tolkien’s appendices for more backstory on why Gandalf chose Bilbo for this task.  Gandalf remembers Bilbo as a young child who loves adventure and danger, and is disappointed to find that Bilbo has become stuffy and conservative 18 years later.

McKellen would like to see a TV miniseries that adapts the full detail of the book in about thirteen hour-long episodes.

The film includes flashbacks to the city of Dale, which isn’t elaborately described in the book, so the art department had to create it from scratch.  They took their cues from its position in Middle Earth (an alpine city) and the fact that it has a lot of water running through it, so it’s slightly Venetian.  They created a “weekend fairground” feeling for Dale.

The false perspective tricks don’t work as well in 3D, so they’ve had to find different ways to block scenes that feature characters of differing size (ie. Gandalf and the dwarves).  They build two scale sets, one small and one big, and actors play out the scene on both sets at the same time.

The special effects team for The Lord of the Rings trilogy created about 500 primary illustrations for conceptual designs; the same team churned out over 8,000 digital paintings for The Hobbit trilogy.

 

[Daft_Cat]

Eh. Isn't the point that he's off happily doing other stuff? I'd hate for them to retcon it into him being

Spoiler

that specific moth

.

That's pretty much up there with Sauron

Spoiler

returning as undead Smaug

in terms of potential movie-destroying changes, much like Arwen at Helm's Deep or Sauron duel at the gates would have been.

I actually wouldn't mind that retcon. It's kind of random, but it'd add a nice new layer on top of that scene. Besides,

Spoiler

everyone already assumes that moth is some sort of call for help from Gandalf..so why not have it be Radagast? I don't see it destroying or altering any beats.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Seems like an embargo was lifted today, two more set reports:

http://www.darkhorizons.com/features/1633/set-visit-the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movi...an&utm_source=facebookfan&utm_medium=referral

The Arkenstone is confirmed.

Speaking of the Arkenstone; there's an interesting theory that the Arkenstone was actually one the Silmarils of Feanor, the one that Maedhros threw into a fiery chasm, only for the dwarves to find it while mining. But the theory breaks down when you consider the fact the Arkenstone was faceted, while the Silmarils were smooth and couldn't be marked by anything in the world save Feanor himself.



Absolute confirmation of a prologue and the Battle of Azanulbizar.

"We did some fighting, which was basically part of a prologue of when the dwarves take the gates of Moria, and it was a great day walking onto second unit, and he had Orcs on this mound and he was rallying them to start this battle cry, and wind machines going, and blood everywhere"

 

[Loxley]

I won't have to wait until film 3 to see a dwarf army

 

[Napalm_Frank]

I won't have to wait until film 3 to see a dwarf army

I hope it's a bit longer than fotr prologue battle.

 

[Loxley]

I actually completely forgot that we had been speculating that the scenes they were shooting here (from the 8th production video) were from the Battle of Azanulbizar. Seems likely now, partially since Thorin appears to be younger.

 

[lastplayed]

Hobbit fever is rising. Here's something my brother made which I just put up in the office.

 

[anaron]

Ever since this was announced as a trilogy with included ridiculous runtimes, my excitement has just slowly dissipated. Still hoping for the best because it still looks amazing.

 

[Hex]

Ever since this was announced as a trilogy with included ridiculous runtimes, my excitement has just slowly dissipated. Still hoping for the best because it still looks amazing.

This does not compute to me.
As someone who loves the material and has since I was very young and someone who loved the first movies I find myself wanting more and more.
I do not possibly see how that could be a bad thing in this case.

 

[Ixion]

This does not compute to me.
As someone who loves the material and has since I was very young and someone who loved the first movies I find myself wanting more and more.
I do not possibly see how that could be a bad thing in this case.

Well, the Extended Editions of LOTR are cool for fans, but most people will say that the theatrical versions are better films. They're definitely paced better. Especially The Two Towers, which has too many slow scenes towards the middle of its Extended Edition. And Return of the King had too much Gimli comic relief.

So I can understand his skepticism.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

I actually completely forgot that we had been speculating that the scenes they were shooting here (from the 8th production video) were from the Battle of Azanulbizar. Seems likely now, partially since Thorin appears to be younger.

Love those dwarven helmets.

I assume

Spoiler

Azog

will take up the Sauron role in the prologue.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Gollum invades New Zealand.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/culture/7867321/Weta-Hobbit-sculpture-unveiled-at-airport

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Hobbit tickets now on sale in the UK: Odeon, Vue

So far just the following options for most locations:

The Hobbit 2D
The Hobbit IMAX 3D
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 3D

Nothing about 48fps thus far.

Well, there hasn't ever been anything said about other countries getting The Hobbit in 48fps, just the US.

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

Hobbit tickets now on sale in the UK: Odeon, Vue

So far just the following options for most locations:

The Hobbit 2D
The Hobbit IMAX 3D
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 3D

Nothing about 48fps thus far.

Well, there hasn't ever been anything said about other countries getting The Hobbit in 48fps, just the US.

I will be so fucking angry if I don't get to watch it in 48fps.

 

[Monocle]

Our only wish, to catch a fish. So juicy sweeeeeeet!

 

[THE-Pink-Dagger]

I do know that in France, there will be a 48 fps trailer and that there will be up-to-date theaters, but it all depends on whether WB sends 48 fps prints.

 

[ScreenSplitter]

I'm slightly afraid of padding... but that sounds awesome. Particularly the part about Radagast. I've never finished reading the Hobbit, so I'm confused about White Council/Dol Goldur stuff. Started the book again today, hopefully going to finish it!

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

I do know that in France, there will be a 48 fps trailer and that there will be up-to-date theaters, but it all depends on whether WB sends 48 fps prints.

How do you know there will be a 48fps trailer? I never could have imagined them putting out a 48fps trailer.

 

[THE-Pink-Dagger]

How do you know there will be a 48fps trailer? I never could have imagined them putting out a 48fps trailer.

I hang out on a forum discussing projection and stuff, and one guy working as a movie projectionist received two versions of the trailer, one in 24 fps 2D, the other in 48 fps 3D'

This is in France mind you.

 

[Ath]

Ack, the BFI IMAX said that they were going on sale at 9AM! I was just about to go to bed when I decided to check Facebook on my phone and saw they were on sale now. Thankfully there were plenty of seats left. Got mine booked for the 22nd December along with 7 of my friends. Getting excited now!

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Cineworld also;

http://www.cineworld.co.uk/whatson/5757

Again, no sign of anything pertaining to 48fps.

 

[strafer]

Gollum invades New Zealand.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/culture/7867321/Weta-Hobbit-sculpture-unveiled-at-airport

Nightmare fuel.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

Movie/trilogy is sounding too good to be true.

 

[Dmax3901]

I actually completely forgot that we had been speculating that the scenes they were shooting here (from the 8th production video) were from the Battle of Azanulbizar. Seems likely now, partially since Thorin appears to be younger.

With context, these photos just got me to a whole new level of hype.

 

[Wiggum2007]

OK I can forgive no talking purse in this movie but only if the talking animals are in the theatrical cut of the next one

 

[lastplayed]

Well, there hasn't ever been anything said about other countries getting The Hobbit in 48fps, just the US.

Looks like the Embassy in Wellington is getting 48fps.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/7868286/Hobbit-to-screen-in-new-audio-format