Hobbit Movie News and Rumors | TheOneRing.net™ » Martin Freeman

‘Hobbit’ production says goodbye to Bilbo (Martin Freeman,) Bard (Luke Evans)

MrCere — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 22:30:34 +0000

Martin Freeman waves goodbye on his last day as Bilbo Baggins.

Peter Jackson has shared on his Facebook page that Martin Freeman has finished his last shot as the film’s titular character Bilbo Baggins. The filming segment currently underway is a 10-week period that was always scheduled for pickups (shots that fill in the cracks once a rough edit of the film is assembled) and scenes for the massive Battle of Five Armies. Bilbo, as written in the book, has a relatively small part to play in the actual battle with his more significant role happening in the lead up to the massive conflict. (Knowing Peter Jackson, this will really be a spectacle!)

Jackson, who shares photos and videos on his Facebook page, captioned a photo of Bilbo waving goodbye:

“Tonight Martin Freeman finished his last shot as Bilbo Baggins. The end of an incredible two and a half years. I cannot imagine anyone else in this role – a character that Martin has nurtured and crafted with love and great skill.

We have said goodbye to our elves, humans, wizards and now the hobbit. We now enter our final 2 weeks of pick-ups, and it’s wall to wall dwarves. These pick-ups have been gruelling and intense, but I’m so happy with what we’ve been shooting. These next two movies are going to be pretty great!”

Martin Freeman as Bilbo with Benedict Cumberbatch.

Soon after, Jackson followed up that post with a somewhat historical shot of Freeman as Bilbo with Benedict Cumberbatch, famously his partner in their Sherlock Holmes television series. The two also figure prominently together in the next Hobbit film as Cumberbatch performs the massive dragon Smaug from his performance capture suit and has a key exchange with Bilbo. When behind-the-scenes content rolls out after the film, there may be more of them together on the Hobbit films but little has been seen so far. With the performance capture role, there could be precious little of the two actors together in New Zealand.

All reports and word from Jackson indicates there will not be pickup shooting next year but Jackson had a period of these after ever LOTR film and it is tempting to suggest there will be more next year. But with such a large principal cast, such an effort might be impossible because of scheduling.

Still in Wellington are the Company of Dwarves which could mean a heavy dose of battle scenes as audiences will want to follow each of them in battle. The book plotting calls for ferocious and deadly action.

Luke Evans, playing the enigmatic Bard the Bowman in “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” also tweeted that his last day on the film is over. Evans’ Tweet suggests he is off to work as Dracula after a summer where his “Fast & Furious 6″ did big business at the box office.

Graham McTavish also tweeted his farewells to Freeman.

Collecting The Precious – Gentle Giant’s Bilbo Baggins Mini-Bust

elessar — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 08:49:58 +0000

Gentle Giant has announced the next mini-bust in their line of collectibles from The Hobbit Trilogy. After a couple of bad guys in a row, they’ve now gone back to adding another of the good guys to the growing collection that Gentle Giant is creating. The next character to come into our homes will be our favorite burglar himself, Bilbo Baggins. As you can see from the pictures, we get Bilbo holding Sting on the same great marble-like base used with the other releases in this line. Bilbo comes in with a price tag of $70 for non-PGM members and $63 for PGM members. You have time to save up for ordering Bilbo as he isn’t due to ship until the second quarter of 2014.

Hobbit’s Martin Freeman: ‘I still have a lot of conversations with people that have no idea who I am.’

MrCere — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 05:12:26 +0000

The UK’s The Independent features an in-depth interview with Martin Freeman where he talks about playing the titular character in “The Hobbit,” Bilbo Baggins as well as other roles John Watson, Tim from “The Office,” and an upcoming movie with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

“I get more 12-year-olds coming up to me than I used to,” he says of his path on fame’s superhighway. “But, I promise, I still have a lot of conversations with people that have no idea who I am. Which is great for me as I usually just want to eat a bowl of pasta in peace.” He also says he gets more fan mail for Watson than Bilbo. You can read the whole article right here.

Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s Bilbo Baggins Barrel Rider Review

elessar — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 02:37:25 +0000

The Summer of Smaug is in full go, as we get closer to Comic-Con 2013. We have had the first teaser poster, first trailer, and the first of Sir Peter Jackson’s Vlogs for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Now, we get the first product for the second film capturing a key moment in the Traveling Party’s journey to Erebor. The moment captured in this mini-statue is one of the participants in the barrel escape. The first character to be done in this series of mini-barrel riders is our loveable Hobbit Bilbo Baggins. This statue is a pre-release before the movie and shows the awesomeness of the collectibles to come from what we will see in the second film.

PACKAGING

The overall graphic for this mini-statue box is the same as we’ve seen from other statues for The Hobbit be it smaller than say a normal 1:6^th statue box. Per the format we’ve come to know the front of the box gives you a great shot of Bilbo, the title of the movie (now saying though The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), a special wax looking stamp saying it’s a preview collectible, and of course the Weta logo. As we’ve seen before you get a couple of shots of the statue on one side of the box. However, the other side gives you information about the statue and how it’s tied to the second film. While the back of the box gives you a look at a couple of items that you can buy from Weta.

SCULPTING

Brigitte Wuest is a name many fans that have collected statues based on the characters of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit should know quite well. Ms. Wuest is back with another amazing piece. Doing a statue of this size and its smaller than even some of the previous mini-statues you’ve seen reviewed here before is a challenge. Well, the job done to make this statue detailed and capture a likeness was a successful one. When you look at this piece you see Martin Freeman and at a full 1:6^th scale that’s a great thing, but even more so when you look at the size of this statue. Ms. Wuest did a superb job of making sure that we are able to have a great likeness of Mr. Freeman as he plays Bilbo in this moment.

The outfit is also very well done and there is great amount of detail within what you do see with this statue. His jacket very much looks like its real cloth, as do his pants. His hair also has some great detail in it very much looking like the hair he has on his head as we see it on screen. The barrel Bilbo is holding on to is a very detailed piece with all the little bits and pieces we see in barrels here in the real world. You also get the rushing water of the river, which we will see all these barrels making their way through. There is quite a bit of detail here when you examine the statue seeing how it’s made to look as if the water is a treacherous ride for the company.

PAINT

The skin tone on this piece is well done as usual by the folks at Weta Workshop. You look at Bilbo and you see someone who very much looks healthy and alive, which is something you want in your collectibles. Aiding the sculpting detail of the clothing is the paint job, which puts the final touches to create the cloth look we expect. The barrel as I said has a great sculpting job done to give it the proper details, but the job to put the cherry on top comes with the paint job. This allows for the barrel to look like its truly made of wood and something you would see in the real world. Of course you have the water, which is, has a great blue paint job creating the illusion of water. However, the coolest aspect of the paint job is the clear lacquer that’s been applied to this statue. In order to give it the proper wet look Weta applied a clear lacquer to the Bilbo, the barrel, and the water. Weta did a fantastic job of doing this so it has the proper wet look but not something that looked slimy.

Overall

Bilbo retails for $65, which is a fantastic price along with something most collectors can fit into a tight budget. The price will also make it much easier for collectors to get all the members of the Traveling Party. As I said the sculpt and paint on this statue is really well done and even more so when you factor in the size of the piece. I want to add that with every release in this line Weta is just continuing to show how great they with these statues.

SPECIFICATIONS

Bilbo is the first in this series of mini-barrel rider statues. He is an open edition and can be purchased for just $65.

Dimensions:

2.7″ x 4.1″ x 4.1″ (H x W x D)
6.8 cm x 10.5 cm x 10.5 cm

Weight:

.7 lbs (320g)

PHOTOS

What we learned from the Desolation of Smaug Trailer

Garfeimao — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:40:33 +0000

So what did we learn from the first “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” trailer? We saw some new characters, the promise of favorite scenes from the book brought to life, and a few departures from existing text. Here is a little round up what was seen and what it all might mean.

The Dwarves take a boat to the Lonely Mountain, but it is not yet known if they will be met on the far side by ponies to get them the rest of the way to the mountain. The scene of them sailing out of town with all the Townspeople singing them on their way is straight out of the book, but Bard’s warning that the whole town will be in jeopardy because of the Dwarves’ quest is not. Bard’s skepticism was always hinted at in the book, but it appears he get’s to play the ‘voice of reason’ in Laketown, which should give more dramatic weight to his character.

Thorin is captured by the Elves ‘with the rest of the Company’, rather than having been caught the night before while crashing an Elven party. In the book, the rest of the Company does not quite realize Thorin is gone because the forest is so dark and they soon become quite busy with giant spiders. After Bilbo frees them of the spiders and the elves capture them, they are imprisoned away from Thorin, not knowing he is there as well. This gives Thranduil an advantage when questioning Thorin since he has no idea what the fate of the rest of his Company is. By capturing them altogether in the film, this changes the dynamics when the Dwarves are brought before Thranduil. Again, this may not make a big difference in the overall story, we shall see this December.

The barrels have no lids, which means there is a higher risk of swamping, but may add a little bit of drivability for the dwarves. It also means poor Bilbo has nothing to perch on. The fact that they hit some white water rapids, it is amazing that Bilbo is still hanging onto Kili’s barrel.

The Dwarves’ escape from the Mirkwood Elves apparently does not go unnoticed by the Elves, or Orcs for that matter. This is shown with the Elves running through the trees above the river as the barrels go by on the river. But there may well be an inside person involved in the escape, since Kili has his bow and Thorin has Orcrist. This is a much bigger change from the books than some of the previous events, we’ll have to wait and see how this all plays out.

Bilbo climbs the trees of Mirkwood to give the Company their bearings, and gets to see a cluster of butterflies. Martin expresses such joy on his face at the sight, this will be a nice break from the darkness of the forest.

Gandalf gets into a scuffle in Dol Guldur with what appears to be a Dwarf, presumably Thrain. This should be a flashback to how Gandalf came into possession of the Key and Map to the Secret Door.

Bilbo will be fighting the giant spiders, and he looks scared. It also appears he gets to do a bit of gymnastics in those trees, should be a rather awesome sequence of events when Bilbo leads the spiders on a merry little chase.

Beorn in bear form is ginormous. That is, if the critter busting through the door the Dwarves are trying to close is Beorn.

Gandalf and Radagast explore the Tombs where the Witch King and his cohorts were supposedly locked away forever. Radagast seems more hesitant, while Gandalf is resolute in exploring, and neither seem happy with what they find.

Tauriel tells Legolas that they should get involved, a coming fight is also their fight. We do not know entirely what she is referring to, but this appears to happen after the Elves have fought with the Orcs chasing the Dwarves down the river.

Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop’s Bilbo Baggins Barrel Rider

elessar — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:19:48 +0000

Today, is a huge day! We’ve already gotten the first poster for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and of course today we got the first trailer for the movie.

Well, that’s not the only thing for the new movie that has made an appearance on this very special day.

Weta has just released the first product and it’s a special preview product for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with this mini barrel-riding Bilbo Baggins statue. This statue fits in line with the mini-statues you’ve seen us review here from The Lord of the Rings. It’s the very first mini-statue for The Hobbit trilogy. This will also be the first in a line of barrel-riding pieces leading up to the release of the film in December. Bilbo is in-stock for $65 so get you order in now to enter for a chance to win 65 Weta dollars and add this amazing Bilbo statue to your collection.

Confirmed: ‘Hobbit’ filming resumes Monday

MrCere — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:32:17 +0000

Peter Jackson talks to Graham McTavish while Martin Freeman, dressed as Bilbo Baggins, looks on.

There have been a smattering of reports about when filming (actually there is no film, it is all digital these days) resumes for this set of pick-ups on “The Hobbit.” TheOneRing.net can confirm (from the very best of sources) that work starts Monday, May 20 in Wellington. Everybody seems to know that a chunk of the work to be done is for the Battle of Five Armies but it seems likely there are other things to be done as well. Often, in the editing room, where all the shooting comes together and the movie transforms from a plan into a finished product, the director (Peter Jackson in this case) or perhaps one of the screen writers (Philippa Boyens or Fran Walsh) wants something extra to flesh out a scene or a character. No details of this have been provided for this film, but that is the way movie making works. Lots of actors have reported through social media that they are returning and we know this block of filming has always been in the plans. Estimates are that up to 10 weeks of work remain to be done with bits for both “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” and “The Hobbit: There and Back Again.” It seems likely that most of the principal cast will return for the segment, although not all are specifically confirmed.

Benedict Cumberbatch in the Star Trek franchise.

Meanwhile some Hobbit actors have big movies in theaters now. Benedict Cumberbatch joins the space crew in “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” this weekend while Luke Evans hops into the Fast and Furious franchise. Both are expected to be significant money makers for Hollywood and will raise the profile of both actors before they his screens in Middle-earth in December. Cumberbatch voices the highly anticipated dragon Smaug while Evans plays the enigmatic Bard The Bowman. Casting calls for those living and legally working in New Zealand have already gone out and actors, such as Adam Brown (see below) on our own weekly TORn Tuesday show talked about his return to New Zealand. It is not believed that Andy Serkis, second unit director, will not return to set which means shooting will likely be a one-unit production. More details as and when they become available.

Popcorn Taxis Hobbit Q&A with Richard Armitage

Kelvarhin — Sat, 04 May 2013 10:37:46 +0000

To celebrate the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in Australia on May 1st, Popcorn Taxi had a special showing of the film with a Q&A session with Richard Armitage. RingerSpy and long time message board member, Deleece Cook aka Elven, was lucky enough to attend and sent us the following report on the night.

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…

When Fandom Comes Together: How #VoteBilbo Rallied The Ringers

Cliff Quickbeam Broadway — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:08:49 +0000

There once was a little hashtag looking for a cause. Over the past eleven days, #VoteBilbo became a lightning rod of attention and excitement among Ringer fans the world over. In the words of another reporter: “it went beyond viral.” A resounding victory was pulled off by the unlikeliest fandom — an unorthodox lovefest — for an unexpected little hero. Here’s the story of how TheOneRing.net galvanized a remarkable fan audience to achieve a sweet victory!

It started when this year’s MTV Movie Awards announced their vote-in contest for the category “Best Hero” — allowing Instagram and Twitter users to employ hashtags like #VoteIronMan or #VoteHulk — and especially of interest to this phenomenon #VoteBilbo. A few days actually went by without us even noticing there was a contest. Over Easter weekend the staff of TheOneRing.net was working to deliver a great presentation before packed crowds (many hundreds in the standing-room-only hall) at WonderCon, happening right on the tail of a very successful April Fool’s Day prank — so no wonder we were looking elsewhere.

TheOneRing.net first brought attention to the contest on April 3rd with this tweet:

Bilbo needs your help! Losing to kristen stewart @mtv movie awards #votebilbo contest mtv.com/ontv/movieawar…

— TheOneRing.net (@theoneringnet) April 3, 2013

We saw that Kristen Stewart’s character Snow White (from that hunky HUNTSMAN movie) had a stunning 13,556 votes, far more than the other nominees… while poor Mr. Baggins was in very last place with only 226 votes. A pathetic showing that would have me old Gaffer shaking his head in shame.

By using Twitter to muster our troops, within a mere 24 hours we saw a mighty surge of thousands of votes — yes THOUSANDS — and it kept going strong from there. We hit the Twitterverse so hard that #VoteBilbo started trending, everyone outside of our community actually picked up on it, K.Stew quickly lost her lead (causing her fanbase to respond), and thus “The Great Battle of the Fandoms” was in full swing.

We realized that TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN fans were supporting their chosen actress, *not* the character she portrayed, a bit of irony not lost on us. The category “Best Hero” did not really mean “Best Actress You’re A Fan Of From Another Franchise Because You Didn’t Really Watch This Movie.” Their rigorous support for the actress rather than the character made the whole contest a bit of a sham, in that context. Rather unfair, in this Ent’s personal opinion, that a true statement of how we regard our heroes was being skewed so badly. Undoubtedly Twi-hards have been a huge segment of MTV’s target audience, and plenty of naysayers told us that we didn’t have a chance to tip the scales. We were glad to have a challenge: a task to show what genuine fan-love of a heroic character really looks like, with numbers not seen since the Muster of Rohan!

The meteoric trending of #VoteBilbo caught everyone’s attention. Warner Bros. Pictures officially supported the effort with this missive from their Twitter account ‘TheHobbitMovie’ on April 5th, which spurred tens of thousands of new votes:

Our burglar, Bilbo Baggins, is nominated for Best Hero atthe 2013 MTV Movie

Awards! Cast your vote now by using #votebilbo

—

The Hobbit (@TheHobbitMovie) April 5,

2013

The other nominees were floundering: Batman and Catwoman were left in the dust of a deserted Gotham City as Bilbo VS. Snow White became a runaway viral showdown. But the numbers were not quite right. Certain fake Twitter accounts (spam-style “bots”) were discovered processing blank-except-for-the-hashtag #VoteSnowWhite tweets, but they were reported and shut down. Our support for Mr. Baggins was quite organic, and the funny thing was that votes were not coming from some hardcore group of Martin Freeman supporters, though they exist, but rather from Tolkien-lovers who really wanted to make a true statement about Bilbo Baggins.

April 6th proved to be a huge day! The media-watch group WHO TRENDED IT? posted this tweet on April 6th, giving TORn proper credit:

Guess what ! #votebilbo trending in the US ? @theoneringnet did it ! Now, that’s badass. Even as a cold hearted robot, I’m impressed.

— Who Trended it ? (@WhoTrendedIT) April 5, 2013

Then our friend Emil Johansson at the LOTRProject Blog gave us something masterful: he launched a special page to show statistics of the voting and how it changed in real-time. He tweeted this:

I have developed a page tracking the results for #votebilbo and MTV Best Hero Award. Please share. lotrproject.com/projects/voteb…

— Emil Johansson (@lotrproject) April 6, 2013

Within his wonderful vote-tracker page we could see exactly what was going on, relative to the timing of our announcements on TheOneRing.net (and our Facebook timeline and Twitter, of course). When there was doubt our votes were less than stellar, we rallied again!

Stars from the LOTR Film Trilogy and even newer actors from THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY jumped on board! Their timing was perfect — and because these actors are actually paying attention to what fans are saying on Twitter, it felt like a genuine grassroots effort was brewing. We had tweets from Dominic Monaghan (Meriadoc Brandybuck) and Dean O’Gorman (the dwarf Fili) on the same day Evangeline Lilly (upcoming new character Tauriel) retweeted our comments — pleased as we were to ultimately learn that retweets counted as full votes!):

#votebilbo

— Dominic Monaghan (@DomsWildThings) April 6, 2013

#votebilbo !

— Dean o’gorman (@Deanogormano) April 6, 2013

Then Sean Astin (my favorite hobbit) joined the fray:

A vote 4 Bilbo #votebilbo Is a Vote for My old Gaffer!!!!{Who you remember worked for Bilbo}. Take 2 secs tic the box-I’ll cook u taters

— Sean Astin (@SeanAstin) April 7, 2013

More ambitious creative folks within our Ringer ranks started posting videos designed to bring a smile to your face as well as playfully jab at Bella Swan — and MTV reported on it, realizing that the race was getting quite aggressive between the two camps. ‘If you liked it then you shoulda put a Ring on it’ had a whole new meaning with Speigel Ei’s Vimeo clip:

single-bilboooo from Spiegel Ei on Vimeo.

“HOBBIT fans went straight for the gut of Team #VoteSnowWhite,
who have to watch as several of the characters from Middle-earth court
Kristen Stewart to their side over Edward Cullen,” declared the MTV blog, and we realized this was indeed a chance to show our resplendent fandom in a unique way. The fact that we have been in love with Tolkien’s HOBBIT characters for 75 years since the book was first published supported the sky-high numbers of votes.

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF VOTES POURED IN DAILY. When the final weekend of the Awards telecast began on April 13th, we broke 1 million votes. K.Stew voters were trying to keep up; sometimes we crossed above or below their high-end total. Fans started to create one-click Twitter vote buttons, and we supplied a host of #VOTEBILBO avatars and funny images to become viral memes. Fans started creating their own images (with familiar LOLcat fonts) and sharing them.

Our lovely lady friends Kili and Fili from our HAPPY HOBBIT video channel did a fun little P.S.A. style announcement asking Ringers to bring their votes to bear! We were really building momentum as a community. There was more spirited fun to be had with this contest than we first suspected!

Did we have crossover from other fantasy fans? You betcha! *wink* GAME OF THRONES featured our very own Sean Bean (Boromir) in the first season and of course it was appropriate for him to support his halfling friend.

We were not just sending empty or meaningless tweets with a hashtag in place — we wanted to make this relevant. In an effort to really bring our feelings and honest passion to the center stage, TORn decided to host a concentrated “Tweet Quest” on Sunday April 14th, the day of the MTV Movie Awards. During a tightly-concentrated 1-hour block, and then another encore 1-hour, we asked Ringers to declare why Bilbo should be named ‘Best Hero.’ So we put forward the call to arms.

Boy oh boy, did they respond with a flood of hobbity lovin’!

Fans declared things that mattered to us, that mattered to readers, and as lovers of Tolkien we could certainly relate: “#VoteBilbo because he was the one person who willingly let the Ring go, when no one else could,” was my personal favorite sentiment. We have an audience that included older-generation folks who had never used Twitter, so we gave quick and easy instructions to help guide our friends toward their goal. We provided everything we could — and most importantly we gave this effort true SPIRIT.

It was a phenomenal success. In the end the final tally was:

#VoteBilbo: 1,637,179

#VoteSnowWhite: 1,532,571

See Emil’s final infographic here!

Giving our furry-footed reluctant adventurer a lead of well over 100,000 to claim the win! Although MTV broadcast the announcement of the winner as a throw-away commercial bumper for Axe body spray (indeed it was shown offstage, not really part of the “actual ceremony”), and although no cast member from THE HOBBIT film was present to receive the award, we here at TheOneRing.net were entirely thrilled to have succeeded with a kind of social networking wizardry that was fueled by you, dear readers.

Such a long way to go from only 226 votes! Such an outpouring of love!

One of our volunteer staffers, Magpie, had this to say: “It was like a flash mob. We did it for us (We defined as the greater Tolkien fan community with TORn functioning a major player in focusing that fan community). It was a community campaign that was an event in itself.”

Staffer Justin who produces our Live webcasts and our weekly show TORn TUESDAY had this to say: “Over 27,000 Bilbo pictures on
Instagram in one week! Take a look at all the comments and tweets we
got, there is something for everyone to run with. Thank you all for making #votebilbo happen. I received several messages at the beginning saying I was ‘crazy’ and it was ‘Folly against Twi-hards,’ ‘Who cares about MTV,’ and ‘What’s the point of a stupid teenage online popularity contest?’ But this is why fans love being fans. Achieving something together. To Prove Their Quality.”

And that, my friends, is indeed the feeling I have at the end of the day. That we have stood up with a flag of unity once again. That we have proven our quality of thinking creatively and acting with great energy! It feels like it was months in the making but it happened over such a very short length of time (making it the more surprising).

The love that brings us together is our love of J.R.R. Tolkien and his works are evergreen. No separation of older to younger generations or access to technology can slant that. The truth will out!

Hulk sad. Too bad.

Batman gave up the ghost. Because we are the most.

Iron Man clad in shame. Shoulda played his own game.

Catwoman felt an itchy pox. Put kitty back in her smelly box.

Snow White drifted. Twi-hards were sifted (out).

But #BilbotheHero wins the day! We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Much too hasty,

Quickbeam

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Follow Cliff “Quickbeam” Broadway on Twitter: @quickbeam2000

Follow TheOneRing.net on Twitter: @theoneringnet

Victory! We have #votebilbo victory!

Rasputin The Evil Balrog — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 04:27:10 +0000

The MTV Movie Awards just announced that Bilbo beat out all the other contenders, including Iron Man, The Hulk, Catwoman, Batman, and Snow White, for the coveted “Best Hero” award. A massive fan effort that spanned continents lead to Bilbo’s victory by a margin of more than 100,000 votes. Using the hashtag #votebilbo, fans cast their votes on Twitter and Instagram and forged a dedicated fellowship committed to showing the world that even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

With more than 1.63 million votes, Bilbo was the clear winner, much to the chagrin of legions of Kristen Stewart and Twilight fans who gave our little hobbit a run for the money. In addition to tweeting, fans created thousands of images that they uploaded to Instagram to share their love for our favorite hero. We’ll have a gallery of some of our favorites online soon.

It’s been a true adventure riding the wild voting rollercoaster, and it’s brought many Ringers together and strengthened our community. From #votebilbo, we’re now united under #BilboTheHero. Click to read about how TORn’s MrCere went from thinking this campaign was “harmless but pretty useless,” to wholeheartedly jumping on board the #votebilbo train as, “A funny thing happened during the process: It became really fun on Twitter to #VoteBilbo!”

[MrCere's "#VoteBilbo becomes a thing]

Sorry No TORn TUESDAY Webcast Today, But You Can Still #VoteBilbo!

Cliff Quickbeam Broadway — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 01:07:20 +0000

With sincere apologies to our local and international online audience: there will not be a TORn TUESDAY live webcast today, as you’ve probably surmised by now. We return to the digital airwaves next week, Tuesday April 16th, at 5:00pm PDT. We are working on several surprising guest interviews and some other mischief you will all enjoy! This particular missed episode today was our chance to talk about the current fan-voting for the MTV Movie Awards BEST HERO category — an online showdown between K. Stewart’s Snow White and M. Freeman’s Bilbo Baggins, as two separate camps of fandom massively point and click to the tune of TENS OF THOUSANDS OF VOTES! This heated contest continues right now with every Tweet and Instagram post, right up until next Sunday’s broadcast of the Awards. Keep tweeting dear Ringer friends! Bilbo is currently ahead — but the armies of prepubescent Twi-hards are loathe to give up this public crowning of their dear Miss Homewrecker Stewart as “best hero” (which seems quite absurd since we know the real hero of that movie was actually the Huntsman, played with Asgardian might by Chris Hemsworth. But I digress… Until next Sunday keep up the Tweets with hashtag #VoteBilbo and we will surely win the day! See you next week Ringer faithful!

Much too hasty,

Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway

Follow Cliff on Twitter: @Quickbeam2000

Help Bilbo win the MTV Movie Award for Best Hero of 2012: #votebilbo

Rasputin The Evil Balrog — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 19:27:08 +0000

Our TORn community all know he’s the bravest little hobbit of them all, but the world needs to know, too! A few days ago, TORn staffer MrCere posted a call to arms. The MTV Movie Awards are asking the public to choose the Best Hero of 2012 using Twitter or Instagram. Our favorite Hobbit, Bilbo, is running neck and neck with (can you believe this?) Snow White. This cannot stand! We need to mobilize our community to show our support for the Master of Bag End.

**Tweet %23votebilbo now!**

Use the link above or choose from one of the #votebilbo messages below and tweet your support now! We’ve provided 20 more automatic tweets below. Just click on the vote link and you will be automatically setting up your next tweet. Tweet early, and tweet often. You can also use #votebilbo to share your vote through your Instagram account. MTV says, “Get creative on Instagram—dress up as your favorite hero, tag a selfie, etc. Any photo with the hashtag is a vote, but only the best will be displayed… during the Movie Awards!”