Smaug, “a most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm” of Tolkien lore, is for many children their first encounter with fire-breathing, scaly dragons. “First one for me,” Cumberbatch is quick to add. “My dad read the book to me and it was a bedtime treat if I had done well. If I had been a good boy, I’d get two chapters as opposed to maybe one or none if I had been really bad.”

As his father, actor Timothy Carlton, brought the colorful characters of “The Hobbit” to life, a film played out in young Cumberbatch’s mind – decades before he would be cast as Smaug in Peter Jackson’s own film “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” [Read More]

Cremorne Orpheum Theatre, Sydney Australia – Wednesday 1st May, 2013
Introduced by: Chris Murray (Creative Director Popcorn Taxi)
Hosted by: Oscar Hillerstrom from Popcorn Taxi
by: Deleece Cook on behalf of theOneRing.net

The cheering began as soon as Popcorn Taxi’s Chris Murray walked out on stage to open the event. There wasn’t a spare seat to be had at The Orpheum Theatre at Cremorne for the exclusive screening of The Hobbit and the live on Stage Q&A appearance with Richard Armitage.

700 smiling excited Thorin Fans were in the audience – and they had come from all over Australia for the event – this is what they had been waiting for hours to see. And it didn’t disappoint. It was a wonderful night of entertainment and surprises – Richard was a talkative guest; relaxed, smiling and laughing through the interview and he tried as best as he could to answer every question put to him from the fans, and from the host Oscar Hillerstrom.

Here’s how the night went – plenty of laughter and cheering and just a great vibe all round!…

Chris Murray: “Good Evening! Do I need to ask how you’re doing? Um, I’ve never been to an underwear sale at David Jones but I suppose this is the closest thing. Ladies and Gentlemen my name is Chris Murray and I am the Creative Director of Popcorn Taxi. It gives me no greater pleasure and enormous privilege to have you here tonight to see on the big screen The Hobbit. But not only that I know why you’re here… Richard Armitage on that seat ladies and Gentlemen”

Mad applause.

Chris Murray:  “Yes, you get the chance to ask him questions – I get the chance to curl into a small ball and rock backwards and forwards in the corner.”

More laughter… Then Chris laid down some house rules regarding soft toys and portraits not coming anywhere near the stage, but he mentioned nicely that questions were welcomed from the audience.
Then the first surprise of the night was announced…

Chris Murray: We are celebrating a fantastic film, and that film is out on Blu-ray and DVD today (mad applause)… “Yes! You should buy it! Warner Bros will love me! But, what’s not on that Blu-ray and what’s not on that DVD is what I’m about to play for you now. We have 12 minutes of a little behind the scenes that you will not see anywhere else. (lots of gasps) After that, you’ll get to meet Mr Richard Armitage.

Mad cheering!

Chris Murray: So enjoy the 12 minutes and relax – get the wetness out of the seats – whatever works for you – and I’ll be back! Please enjoy this event.

The sound of the cheering audience was amazing! Then silence. The lights lowered and the huge screen lit up… and then there was Peter…

Peter Jackson: “You want the Hobbit to be a visual experience that goes several steps beyond Lord of The Rings”

And that familiar drone of singing Dwarves speaking of “Pines and Mountains cold” echoed through the theatre – every eye was glued to the screen… it was more than 12 minutes of magic!

The film covered races and character that we see in the An Unexpected Journey – with snippets of comments from the actors and crew members. It shortly gave a brief explanation of the storyline and highlighted some of the production values and costuming as well.

In no particular order – Here are just some of the presenters on the clip, and what they had to say…
____
Peter Jackson: “When we made Lord of the Rings I was absolutely sure that was going to be a once in a lifetime experience. I never realized that ten years later I’d be doing it all over again – and we actually shot the 266 days on The Hobbit which was exactly the same number of days we shot on Lord of The Rings, so I’ve sort of done the once in a lifetime experience twice now (laughs) not a third time – there won’t be a third time”

Peter Jackson: “10 years ago it was Ian playing the character of Gandalf and no one had seen any of the movies, and now that’s an iconic figure. That’s Gandalf.”

Peter Jackson: “The same creative talent. 20 or 30 of the most senior people were Lord of The Rings veterans”

Peter Jackson: “The thing that’s so incredible about Martin is that he’s always exploring, he’s experimenting, he’s always trying to figure out where Bilbo’s truth is”

Peter Jackson: “One of the scary things about adapting The Hobbit is the fact that there’s 13 dwarves – and differentiating those characters was important.”

Philippa Boyens: “I remember the day when I knew we were back in Middle-Earth. I walked over to the costume room and there was Gandalf. And I suddenly thought… We’re Back.”

Philippa Boyens: (about Dwarves): “In the end Pete fell in love with each and every one of those characters. And as much as there is a little bit of Dwarf in Peter I think there’s a little bit of Peter in all those Dwarves.”

John Howe: “I imagine that Peter will do for Dwarves what he did for Elves because he is going to give them much more density, much more history.”

Martin Freeman: (talking about his character Bilbo) “… We join Bilbo as the book of The Hobbit does, as a home faring solitary Hobbit. …certain things struck me about him suggested a certain timidity and a lot of life…”

Elijah Wood: “You’ll get taken on an amazing ride”

Elijah Wood: “To have a chance to return, pop a wig on and feet it kind of feels like I’ve stepped into a time machine. And I get to meet all of these other actors who are coming along for the real long journey and sort of seeing in them a little bit of what we felt like when we started”

Elijah Wood: “A seed is being planted for what eventually comes the time period that we meet in Lord of The Rings”.

Christopher Lee: “Middle Earth seems to be just beginning to rumble and tumble”

Christopher Lee: “The White Council – they represent enormous power. There’s suspicion amongst all of them that there’s this building power of evil – getting stronger and stronger!”

Cate Blanchett: (on Gandalf in the film): “What makes Gandalf the most wonderful hero is the courage against popular opinion. He gets to move on into the darkness that no one else is prepared to go into.”

Hugo Weaving: “Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, Saruman, they play a role in eliminating those [forces?] from the political landscape.”

Ian McKellen: (on his character Gandalf regarding the appendices) “ Gandalf in The Hobbit; he is off and away doing other business and quite what that is, is not revealed in the novel. In the films we get to see what Gandalf was up to.”

Ian McKellen: “It’s magic. It’s pure magic. And you’ll believe it.”

The sound of the Dwarves was heard and the film ended with the audience cheering and clapping once more.

Then it was time for Richard Armitage to grace the Stage…

This week on the LOTR Movie board this week, Mciliel is leading us in a discussion on the many faces of Jed Brophy.

On The Hobbit board boldog wants to know which is the more fitting villain of the Hobbit movies, Azog or Smaug?  Which do you think?  Share your views here.

Fiesta Friday was especially busy this week, with Message boarders catching up with fellow TORnFolk caught up in last weeks’ madness, natural disasters, wild weather, factories exploding and the Boston Marathon. Here’s to a much quieter week this week!

Meanwhile on The Pollantir, sam90 would like to know how do you like your reading material; e-book or paper book?

We’ll share more topics next week and we hope you will come and join in the conversations!  Don’t forget, TheOneRing.net’s message boards have over 9,600 registered Tolkien fans, just like you.  Let your voice be heard!

On the script: “[Jackson] knows this world — as far as a filmmaker is concerned — better than anybody else in the world. I knew it would be good… and then I got the script and it was good. But we didn’t get the second script until way into shooting. Because they like to work on it and work on it. There’s no way they’re going to show you anything… I mean Like most writers, actually, they don’t want to show you their baby until they’re really, really happy with it. They’re no exception.”

On the original final scene of An Unexpected Journey: “The ending visual was the same. Smaug’s eye opening — it was the same. I loved that ending as a visual thing. But more had happened up to that point.”

On the casting of “Sherlock” co-star, Benedict Cumberbatch: “I saw his picture in the production office, and was, like ” yeah, that would really, really work”. And I knew he really wanted to do it. Because when we went up for it, we both went on tape for The Hobbit at the same time while we were shooting the first series of Sherlock. He read for Smaug. and that was Benedict’s childhood book, so he was delighted.”

[Watch Video]

There has been a lot of debate of when “An Unexpected Journey” will split for film two “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” Cumberbatch teased with this hinter on when to expect to see Smaug it appears that it could be as early as the end of the first film:

“I think my eye might open at the end of the first film and then you’ll get the rest of me in the second,” he said.

This would lead credence to the fact the second film could be called The Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug. The quote however was revealed before it was announced before the announcement of the third Hobbit movie. [Read more]

We get a bit more information on Smaug in The Hobbit, and how Cumberbatch played the role. For those just keen on reading Hobbit spoilers, highlight the bit just below!

“Filming The Hobbit brought challenges of a different kind. Although he plays two roles, a necromancer and Smaug (a fantastical villain he describes with undisguised glee as ‘a 400-year-old fire-breathing worm who lives in the middle of a mountain on top of a pile of gold, who is three or four times bigger than the Empire State Building and can fly’), he barely encountered any other members of the cast. He worked on his scenes with the director, Peter Jackson, shooting against a green screen while wearing a motion-capture suit. ‘It’s sort of a grey all-in-one jumpsuit, with a skullcap, a Madonna headset and Aboriginal-like face paint,’ he explains. ‘You feel like a tit in all that gear but Peter is so lovely you soon forget.’ ”

[More]

Introducing and differentiating thirteen different dwarves to a wider audience most likely unfamiliar with the Hobbit and its ultra-beardy cast was critical for Peter Jackson. So Jackson used an entire trailer for the task.

But, because that trailer was so light on plot, we’ve been wondering ever since what degree of fidelity the story will possess and exactly how it might unfold.

The EW storybook addresses this at a single stroke. EW isn’t calling it a storybook, but that’s what Jackson has created. A gorgeously illustrated storybook that guides us through the key points of The Hobbit.

Read on for a spoiler-filled scene-by-scene review of The Hobbit — storytime with Peter Jackson!

Using a storybook at this point is a master-stroke. It’s just perfect.

What better way to convey the core story of the adaptation of a favourite fairytale than through something that in itself resembles a children’s storybook? The only thing it doesn’t do is pop-up.

The good: in the broad-brush it’s full of reassurance for readers who love The Hobbit! The not-so-good: occasional inconsistencies over details and puzzling questions about the Dol Guldur sub-plot.

It makes me think that, as much as the trailer was for people who don’t know The Hobbit, this storybook is for the people who DO.

And it makes me think of a quote from EW’s magazine article, though perhaps I am slightly misusing the context here.

“It will all make sense,” director Peter Jackson promises Tolkien purists.

That’s still a bit optimistic right now, but what are the elements that give us cause to feel reassured that there will be significant fidelity in the adaptation?

For starters, the EW storybook progresses very fluidly from beginning to end, almost exclusively following the events of Tolkien’s The Hobbit up until the end of chapter 9, Barrels out of Bond.

As we break-down each scene you might also like to grab this mega-large, 8,800-pixel-long version for your desktop (warning: 2.5mb file) from Cinescopia.

Scene 1. Bag End.

Bilbo’s grand adventure, of course, begins at Bag End when Gandalf shows up one afternoon and scribes a mark on Bilbo’s “beautiful, green door”. The pipe is a nod to the smoke rings that Tolkien uses as a prop for the opening scenes.

Some details are askew: Gandalf stops for a pipe; the door has a G-rune carved on it; and that’s almost certainly Glamdring that his right hand is resting upon. But the stormclouds and Gandalf’s frown are like a metaphorical marker that Bilbo’s world is about to be turned upside-down.

Scene 2. The Unexpected Party.

Pies, cakes and pastries galore and huge mugs of ale. And in the middle, Bilbo looking like a proud homeowner at being able to serve up such a feast at a moment’s notice.

I’m minded of a line from Gandalf to Thorin from Unfinished Tales: “Food is perhaps at present [Bilbo's] main interest. He keeps a very good larder, I am told, and maybe more than one. At least you will be well entertained.”

Scene 3. Roast Mutton.

Thorin and Bilbo are the last ones standing when the company tries to procure a bite to eat from a trio of trolls. Note some of the dwarves trussed up around a giant steaming cauldron. In the background, three trolls ready an ambush. Gandalf is nowhere to be seen.

Detail: Thorin is armed with his “dwarven” weapon, not Orcrist. It’s a good hint that he’ll claim the famed sword of Gondolin from the troll-hoard. I wonder if he’ll still grab a burning branch to defend against the trolls in the end, though.

Wacky bonus theory with no support whatsoever: the Morgul blade that becomes a key driver of the Necromancer sub-plot could be found in the troll-hoard.

Scene 4. Over Hill and Under Hill.

Here, things become a little bit of a puzzle. For although the trollshaws of Rhudaur are hilly, they’re hardly important to the plot. So I conclude that this is the company starting the long climb into the Misty Mountains.

Detail: no ponies. What gives? We saw them start out with shaggy ponies in an early production video. Have the elves eaten them? Also, whether we may see giants hurling around boulders is still an unknown.

Scene 5. Rivendell and the White Council.

Elrond is holding the map of Thror, examining it under bright (moon?)light. A crescent moon would be consistent with Tolkien, but recall the full moon of the previous frame. In front, on the table is that Morgul blade. So here we have the two key items that drive each sub-plot forward. Why this frame is placed after the climb into the mountains is something that doesn’t entirely gel with my storybook concept.

Detail: Behind Elrond is another angle of the Gandalf and Galadriel scene we saw in the trailer. Is Galadriel about to send Gandalf (again, because he already had to go once to get the map, right?) to Dol Guldur to find out for certain what’s going on there? Many unanswerable questions here.

Scene 6. Riddles in the Dark.

Back on firmer ground, Bilbo is using the dim orc-glow of Sting to find his way through the underground caverns of the Misty Mountains. In the foreground, Gollum is drawn toward the unexpected light. Riddling will ensue, and a lot of angst for Gollum.

Detail: Is Gollum fishing?

Scene 7. Out of the Frying-pan, into the Fire.

Bilbo climbs for his life to escape a pack of howling, angry wargs. The hyena-like wargs of Lord of the Rings looked very poor, a rare visual mis-step from WETA. These ones are much more lupine. It’s way better. In the air, the eagles of Gwaihir the Windlord circle, drawn by the forest fire Gandalf has inadvertently begun.

Detail: Tolkien writes that Thorin orders Dori to give Bilbo a boost into the fir tree. Presumably the dwarves and Gandalf have already climbed out of picture.

Scene 8. Queer Lodgings.

Beorn the skinchanger! Well, knock me down with a feather! That’s something I didn’t expect to see this side of the film’s release. Apart from his physical bulk, his fierceness is impressive.

Puts me in mind of this bit from the book: “A goblin’s head was stuck outside the gate, and a warg skin nailed to a tree just beyond. Beorn was a fierce enemy.”

Detail: Is that the famed Carrock that Gandalf and Beorn are standing on? Tolkien writes that Gandalf follows bear tracks as far as the Carrock in the night.

Scene 9. Flies and Spiders.

In the dimness of Mirkwood, Bilbo has only his own resources to draw upon.

“Somehow, the killing of the giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark, without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of anyone else, made a great difference to Mr Baggins. He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach…”

Detail: Sting glows in the presence of spiders? Hmmmm, well Gondolin of old was close to Nan Dungortheb, the Valley of Dreadful Death, and home to the descendents of the arch-spider Ungoliant. So it’s not an impossible stretch that Sting could have been imbued with powers to shine in the presence of giant spiders.

Scene 10. Barrels out of Bond.

There are two parts to this scene.

The first: the company crossing the bridge across the Forest River into the Halls of Thranduil. All 13 dwarves. Thorin is bringing up the rear, I think. And, seemingly, they’re alone.

The second: the company floating down the forest river to freedom. On the extreme right, Bilbo is the barrel-rider!

Detail: Notice how weathered the bridge is. It’s stood there for long, long ages. Notice also, the complete absence of Sindarin and Silvan elves. Have they been removed from the bridge to strengthen the photo’s impact? Finally, in the far distance, could that just be the Lonely Mountain beckoning?

I’m just as thrilled about the flow of this storybook as I am puzzled and intrigued about the little details, changes and omissions.

The absence of the elves here is a particular puzzler. But here’s a thought: the Cinema-con mess was a bit of a setback for the marketing campaign. Maybe, to avoid spooking any more horses, the role of the elves at the pointy end of An Unexpected Journey is being minimised for the nonce.

Or maybe they’re still keen to focus on the key characters.

Either way, it’s food for thought.

“It’s an extrapolation of a performance into something other than an actor. But essentially, you’re still doing a scene.”

Cumberbatch who also stars in the up-coming Star Trek 2 and plays Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock says that his acting parents helped him learn the importance of professionalism.

In other Cumberbatch news, apparently he’s also landed a small guest spot on the Simpsons. Its been recorded, but no word yet on when it might air, or what the part involved.

[The zoo visit] | [The Simpson's spot]

Before we get to the spoiler fun, Total Film has named six ‘Hobbit‘ actors as part of their Summer 2012 Future 100: Aidan Turner (Kili), Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel), Martin Freeman (Bilbo), Richard Armitage (Thorin), Luke Evans (Bard)  and Benedict Cumberbatch (Smaug/Necromancer).

We’ve attached a scan from the magazine for your viewing pleasure. (Courtesy of richardarmitagenet.com)

So now for the spoiler…highlight the text to read the details: (or if for some reason you can see text below, stop reading!)

“Kili’s part has been expanded from the novel; as well as chasing treasure, he’s also pursuing female elf Tauriel. But is he setting his sights too high? ‘I guess he knows nothing can ever happen,’ he explains. ‘She’s about 20ft tall and he’s only two!’”

So there you have it – at least one hint at how romance may play a part in The Hobbit! [TotalFilm]