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

New Hobbit Production Diary Number 2 and Dwarf Pics

Peter Jackson has recently uploaded a brand new production diary from the set of The Hobbit and also released some great new pictures of John Callen as 'Oin' and Peter Hambleton as 'Gloin' and another of Jed Brophy as 'Nori', Adam Brown as 'Ori' and Mark Hadlow as 'Dori'

Distant cousins of Thorin Oakenshield, these two doughty Northern Dwarves join the Company out of a sense of loyalty to their kin, and also because they have a substantial sum of money invested in the venture. Along with Bombur, Gloin is the only other married Dwarf in the Company (there being a shortage of female dwarves in general). His wife is an acclaimed beauty with a particularly fine beard. Gloin is the proud father of a young son, Gimli, who will go on to become part of the famous Fellowship of the Ring.

'Oin' and 'Gloin'

These three brothers, all sons of the same mother, could not be more different from each other. Dori, the oldest, spends much of his time watching out for Ori, the youngest; making sure hes not caught a chill or got himself killed by Wargs or Goblins. Nobody quite knows what Nori gets up to most of the time, except that its guaranteed to be dodgy and quite probably, illegal. Dori, Nori and Ori are intensely loyal to each other and whilst they are perfectly happy fighting amongst themselves, woe-betide anyone who means harm to one of these brothers.

'Nori', 'Ori' and 'Dori'

And lastly, here is the second on set production diary from Peter Jackson and its really interesting to see Andy Serkis in the 2nd unit Director's Chair. Peter, as with all of his 'large scale' films prefers to shoot in blocks and then edits along the way which also gives Weta ample opportunity to start work on the mammoth amount of visual effects shots.

Double Vision for the Hobbit

Well the rumours are without a doubt true. Both of the Hobbit films will be filmed in 3D. Ian McKellen confirmed that Director of Photography Andrew Lesnie (long term collaborator of Peter Jackson and DOP for all three LOTR films) has been doing some lens tests during costume fittings with Martin Freeman.

I have to say this is exciting news. To see the wonders of Middle Earth in 3D will be something to behold and I am really glad it's being shot in 3D rather than a conversion. Andrew Lesnie is one of the best in the business and I am confident he will do a wonderful job in creating Hobbiton and all the other Hobbit locations in 3D. Just a note though Andrew.........in the dark scenes can you brighten it up just a little bit??? - Those glasses don't help much in the dark scenes.....something I am sure The Hobbit will have a lot of !

Bofur and Gandalf (James Nesbitt and Ian McKellen)

Photo courtesy of Ian McKellen