bilbo In the wake of the release of the Desolation of Smaug trailer last night (if you haven’t seen it yet, you can check it out here, read the reactions of our staff here, and see some new high-resolution stills here), here’s a few snippets of interesting news for everyone!

Some you might have already read, some may be an eye opener.

New production video coming soon!

Peter Jackson’s daughter Katie Jackson indicated on her Twitter account on June 9 that “the next Hobbit production vlog will be up within the next 2 weeks”. So it seems we’ll have more to chew over by June 23 at the latest.

Update on the Wellington Premiere kerfuffle

A lot of people were disappointed that Wellington would not be getting the premiere for Desolation of Smaug.

Speaking with TVNZ, Wingnut Films spokesperson Matthew Dravitzki said was never an intention to hold all three world premieres for The Hobbit in New Zealand.

He said: “with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the first film was premiered in London, the second film was premiered in New York, and the third film was premiered in Wellington.” A location for the premiere has not yet been confirmed.

Hobbit cast and crew react to Happy Hobbit

Our own Happy Hobbit video bloggers recorded a live reaction video to the Desolation of Smaug trailer. Peter Jackson apparently stumbled upon it and posted it up on his own faceborg page. But then he went one better and pulled together Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom, and Lee Pace (in costume!) and filmed their reaction to to our own Kili and Fili’s reaction.

We think it’s pretty funny — check out the video evidence at the bottom.

Also, TORn staffer Rasputin the Evil Balrog notes that you’ll see Lee Pace is wearing a completely different crown than the one he’s been wearing in every other scene we’ve seen him in. She writes:

‘Obviously the tall “Evening Wear” version is not convenient for battle, so the “Day Wear” circlet comes out along with his full-on armor. He must’ve been in the middle of shooting some Battle of Five Armies goodness with his dirty face and all. Interesting that Orlando and Evangeline are not wearing armor.’