Posted on Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 by Angie Han
Guess who’s been hanging out in Middle-earth again! Also after the jump:
Posted on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013 by Germain Lussier
Disney shutting down Lucasarts is certainly the biggest Star Wars news of the day, but there’s plenty more where that came from. After the jump read about the following:
Posted on Monday, April 1st, 2013 by Russ Fischer
While initial trailers for The Hobbit have some footage that will likely be in the second chapter, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (as the trailers were crafted before the adaptation was split into three parts) the first “official” look at the second movie came via a live web event for those who bought The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on Blu-ray or DVD.
Now Peter Jackson has posted a condensed version of that live event for everyone to see, and the six-minute clip has the writer/director answering questions about the film, as well as some behind-the-scenes views of scenes from The Desolation of Smaug. You’ll see Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman, and Evangeline Lilly as the elf Tauriel, among other things
And there are even appearances from Stephen Colbert, who asks a pretty hyper-detailed question about Jackson’s Middle-Earth, and Lord of the Rings actor Billy Boyd. Read More »
Posted on Monday, March 25th, 2013 by Angie Han
Who wants to see the first trailer from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug? Well, too bad, because it’s not coming for another few months. Also after the jump:
Posted on Tuesday, March 12th, 2013 by Russ Fischer
It’s been a year and a half since the first Tintin film was released, but the partnership between Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson may still be on track to return to theaters in a couple years. While Peter Jackson, who will direct the mo-cap footage for the next Tintin film, is pretty busy with two more Hobbit movies, he said last year that he would shoot the mo-cap work this year.
And now Steven Spielberg has commented on the developing film, and says the plan is still to have the next movie done by Christmas 2015. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2013 by Germain Lussier
Briefly: For a moment, after Peter Jackson revealed The Hobbit would be three films, the series’ third installment was scheduled to be the first of his Middle-Earth films released in summer. That moment has passed. Warner Bros. has moved the conclusion to The Hobbit trilogy, The Hobbit: There And Back Again, to winter. The new date is December 17, 2014 specifically. It’ll come two years after The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and one after The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which is out this December 13. [Deadline]
Posted on Friday, December 21st, 2012 by Germain Lussier
“The ring is mine.” Frodo Baggins’ chilling line in the heart of Mount Doom at the end of The Return of the King is one the most shocking moments in Peter Jackson‘s trilogy. After three movies and over nine hours to get to this exact spot, Frodo (Elijah Wood) decides he doesn’t want to destroy The One Ring. He wants to keep it.
So what would have happened had Frodo kept the ring? Well, odds are Sauron would have just killed him and taken it for himself, turning all of Middle Earth into a world of darkness. But had Frodo decided earlier to break off from Sam and the Fellowship and keep the ring himself, he too would devolved into a terrible creature, much like the hobbit named Smeagol did oh so long ago. Before Smeagol became Gollum.
All this is leading to a photo that’s recently come online showing a make-up test Elijah Wood did while filming the original Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s a test for a scene that showed what would have happened to Frodo had he kept The One Ring. Check it out below. Read More »
Posted on Friday, December 14th, 2012 by Russ Fischer
Today’s the day — over a decade after the premiere of Peter Jackson‘s The Fellowship of the Ring, the director returns to Middle-Earth with the first of three planned films adapting J.R.R. Tolkien‘s first novel The Hobbit. The films won’t adapt only that book, however, as Jackson and co-writers Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Guillermo del Toro have also incorporated elements from appendecies and supplements to The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien eventually devised a dense amount of parallel story to buttress the episodic adventure of The Hobbit, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey incorporates some of that material.
The film is also Jackson’s first film set in Middle-Earth to be shot on a digital camera and in 3D, and the first studio feature film ever to be shot and projected at a high frame rate of 48 fps, compared to the standard 24fps.
Suffice to say, despite the presence of familiar Lord of the Rings faces such as Ian McKellen, Ian Holm, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, Christopher Lee, and Hugo Weaving, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is very much a different look at Middle-Earth. Germain has weighed in on the film itself, and I’ve put down some thoughts on the high frame rate presentation. Now, tell us what you thought of the film, below. Spoilers follow in the text after the break, and are encouraged in the comments to facilitate full discussion of the film. Read More »
