Hobbit Production Diary No.3 Plus New Images

Peter Jackson's video diaries are a bit like buses - you wait for ages and two come along at the same time. No sooner had we been treated to his second video a couple of weeks ago, along comes a third....and what a cracker it is too. So what does the video feature....

For reasons that aren't explained Peter is at Pinewood studios filming what appears to be internal Bag End scenes whilst looking for Andy Serkis (who I assume is probably asleep somewhere due to him appearing so knackered in video number 2)

The diary then shows us some fascinating footage of Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Andy Serkis in full gimp suit and head cam as Gollum filming some cave scenes. Lord of the Rings set designer Dan Hennah makes an appearance and you can see from his face that he is glad to be back in Tolkien's world and clearly in his element - after all he is an Oscar winning Art Director and Set Decorator responsible for making the best movie trilogy ever look so great !

It's great to see Ian McKellen struggling with all the Dwarf names. It can't be easy as there are 13 of them. I often struggle with Snow White's gang but I am sure they will be household names just like Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin in a couple of years.

"Lots of rubber, lots of hair"

Again for reasons that are not explained, but maybe that is a good thing, Mark Hadlow (Dori) is wearing a Sailor's outfit and according to some of the other dwarves he does favour other odd military regalia from time to time????

Some great footage appears in shoot day 38 of 'Trollshaw' - an epic battle scene featuring the Dwarves directed by second unit director and Gollum actor Andy Serkis.

Shoot day 38 brings back memories as we see Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett looking beautiful reprising their roles from Lord of the Rings.

The hightlight of the whole video for me is seeing John Ryhs Davies on set with the whole Dwarf gang in Wellington at Bag End showing some empathy 'of sorts' for the heavy costumes and prosthetics the actors have to wear. John of course played Gimli in Lord of the Rings so it must of been strange for him to see his dad Gloin, played by Peter Hambleton.

Last but not least there is a treat right at the end but I don't want to spoil it too much so you will just have to take a look at the video yourself

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in late 2012

As a bonus here is another James Fisher photo of Richard Armitage as Thorin exclusively for theonering.net

Evangeline Lilly & Barry Humphries Join Cast of The Hobbit

Peter Jackson yesterday revealed some new cast members for "The Hobbit". Former 'Lost' star Evangeline Lilly has been cast in his two part epic as the woodland elf, Tauriel which means Daughter of Mirkwood. Peter stated that he is thrilled that Evangeline will be bringing the first Sylvan Elf to life. You may of course remember that Evangeline's former partner, Dominic Monaghan starred as 'Merry' in the original Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Another inspired choice of casting comes in the form of Barry Humphries. Best known for his other personas as Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, Barry has been cast as 'The Goblin King' in much the same way as Andy Serkis played Gollum, which can only mean one thing......it's motion capture and a gimp suit for Mr Humphries all the way.

Great casting and it looks as though The Hobbit is coming along nicely. I have had a few emails with a few people saying it looks as though Peter Jackson is 'winging' it with casting still taking place whilst shooting has already begun. This is actually quite normal for most films, especially large scale epics such as this. Sometimes cast members can come and go and you have to remember that not many films' scenes are shot in order of how they appear on screen.

The Hobbit is going to be an amazing spectacle, perhaps even better than Lord of the Rings. Peter is location scouting as I type this in beautiful New Zealand, and with the frame rate he has chosen to shoot in (48fps) and the 3D technology, it will seem like you are really there in middle earth.