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 Images - "Fili" and "Kili"

To the left are Dean O'Gorman as "Fili" and Aiden Turner as "Kili" in a brand new promotional picture from The Hobbit.

Two of the youngest Dwarves, Fili and Kili have been born into the royal line of Durin and raised under the stern guardianship of their uncle, Thorin Oakensheild. Neither has ever travelled far, nor ever seen the fabled Dwarf City of Erebor. For both, the journey to the Lonely Mountain represents adventure and excitement. Skilled fighters, both brothers set off on their adventure armed with the invincible courage of youth, neither being able to imagine the fate which lies before them.

This brand new picture follows hot on the heels from my previous post of the second Hobbit production diary.

The picture was taken by renowned Australian photographer James Fisher who has taken photographs of some of Australia finest including Nicole Kidman, David Wenham and Hugh Jackman. To see more of his amazing work visit http://www.jamesfisher.com.au/

TinTin Full Length Trailer

What do you get if you take the directing skills of 'Jaws', 'Jurassic Park', and 'Saving Private Ryan', mix it with the producers of 'Lord of the Rings' and 'King Kong' and then combine it with the writers behind 'Sherlock', 'Attack the Block' and 'Hot Fuzz' and 'Shaun of the Dead' ?????

Well the answer is The Adventures of "TinTin: The Secret of the Unicorn", a new performance capture film from Director Steven Spielberg and Producer Peter Jackson. The film stars Jamie Bell as Herge's famous explorer with Andy Serkis as 'Captain Haddock' and Simon Pegg & Nick Frost as 'Thomson & Thompson'.

The movie combines the three stories 'The Crab With The Golden Claws', 'The Secret Of The Unicorn' and 'Red Rackham's Treasure' and will focus on TinTin's first encounter with Captain Haddock and the discovery of instructions as to the whereabouts of a sunken ship and, of course, lots of treasure.

Filming took place in just over 30 days, starting at the end of January 2009 which sounds quick but that is the beauty of performance capture, its nice and speedy due to not having to set up lights etc. Its only afterwards the hard work really starts in post production. Weta Digital (Avatar) will be providing the mammoth amount of CGI required whilst king of the movie themes, John Williams will be providing the score. 

The film will be the first in a trilogy of films with the second being directed by Peter Jackson and the third being co-directed by both Steven and Peter. It's scheduled for release in Decmber 2011 and I think this will be the start of a great trilogy !

We featured the teaser trailer a few weeks ago but here now for your pleasure is the full length international trailer.

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.

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.

Sherlock to become a Dragon !

It was revealed yesterday that Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch will be joining the cast of "The Hobbit" to play Smaug the Dragon via motion capture and also to voice the Necromancer.

Benedict's "Sherlock" co-star Martin Freeman, who himself is playing Bilbo Baggins, revealed that Benedict was joining the cast at the Bafta's last month so it's good to confirm the roles he is playing.

This is of course not the first time an actor has played two roles in a Middle Earth film. John Rhys Davies played both Gimli and voiced Treebeard in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Strangely enough, in a rather odd coincidence John recently voiced the role of Dr Watson in "Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes" ????

It's no surprise really that Benedict has been cast in Peter Jackson's two part epic tale. In the incestuous world of film making its always been a case of six degrees of separation...........or more a case of six degrees of Kevin Bacon.......

Basically.....Peter Jackson is producing and directing the two Hobbit films. He is also producing the Tin Tin films which star Andy Serkis (Gollum) as Captain Haddock. They are being co-written by Steven Moffat and he writes Sherlock, which stars Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch. Its a case of scratch my back and I will scratch yours I guess. In fact , don't be surprised if you see some Hobbit cameos in the second series of Sherlock.

Stephen Fry joins cast of The Hobbit

Peter Jackson has just released some exciting news regarding casting for The Hobbit on his Facebook page. Stephen Fry will be joining the cast as The Master of Laketown. 

Apparently Peter has known Stephen for several years and are currently developing a remake of The Dambusters.

I'm very pleased to hear this news as I am a huge fan of Mr Fry's work. He is a true English icon and I am sure he will fit the role very nicely.

Also mentioned in Peter's post is the casting of Conan Stevens, and yes that is his name. Australian born Conan is a professional stuntman and former Pro Wrestler. Soon to be featured in the HBO series Game of Thrones as Ser Gregor Clegane, in The Hobbit he will be playing an Orc named Azog and, at 7 foot tall, should fit the bill extremely well.

A Hobbit Round-up

It seems as if there is some new Hobbit news as each day passes so here is a quick round-up in case you didn't already know

 Saoirse Ronan

First...the rumour(s)....Saoirse Ronan (Lovely Bones, Hana) is rumoured to be playing Itaril. I reckon there is some weight to this rumour. Saoirse has already proved to be a fine young actress with a brilliant performance in the Lovely Bones and you could tell from the making of diaries on the LB Blu Ray bonus disc that she has a good relationship with Peter Jackson.

Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies, The Fall has been cast as Thranduil. I love Lee Pace's work. Pushing Daisies was cancelled well before it's time and I don't think I have seen Lee in anything of any worth, since so this is good news.

Lee Pace

Rob Kazinsky was cast as Fili in the Hobbit but has been forced to leave due to health reasons. Rob is best known in the UK for his role as Sean in the soap EastEnders. The role of Fili has now been given to Kiwi actor  Dean O'Gorman.

Dean O'Gorman

Andy Serkis has been named as Second Unit Director alongside his role as Gollum. This is no surprise as Andy has been a long term collaborator with Peter Jackson since The Fellowship of the Ring and he was also Dramatic Director for the Video Game 'Heavenly Sword'. You only have to look at the behind the scenes extras on the LOTR extended edition DVD's and witness the amount of input Andy had for the character of Gollum to see why Peter Jackson has given Andy this role.

Andy Serkis

Peter Jackson has revealed that The Hobbit will be filmed @ 48 frames per second which is double that of normal productions. This basically means a much, much sharper image. Plus the movie is being shot in 3D so it should be one of the best looking movies ever released.

Lastly.....another rumour doing the rounds is that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul) might make a cameo in The Hobbit. There were on the Hobbiton set whilst film filming TinTin (another Peter Jackson project) so I think it's unlikely you will see them on screen but you never know........

Hobbit Video Diary

Peter Jackson has recently posted a video diary from the production of The Hobbit on his facebook page. I have to say this is very exciting indeed because we get to see a real glimpse of whats to come. With some really great HD views of Bag End and Rivendell and a traditional Maori Welcoming ceremony this 10 min vid has it all. I just hope Mr Jackson makes this a regular thing but I suspect most of the good stuff with be kept for the Blu Ray releases !

Click HERE for the direct link to Peter Jackson's facebook page or have a view of the video on youtube below

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