Odette Anscombe-Smith has created three custom pieces for her friend Carolynne Cunningham, who is a producer and assistant director on The Hobbit.

Cunningham will choose one, and the others could well be worn by stars of the movie.

“I wanted to make something that had unknown origins – something that could have been made by elves, could have been made by dwarves . . . something a dragon would covet,” she said.

“Some of this inspiration might have been drawn from her time as a featured extra in the Hobbit films – as a dwarf woman, complete with beard.” [editorial emphasis]

WOW!

Still doesn’t tell us when the lady dwarf (or dwarves) will make an appearance, but we now know they will at some point.

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This is, perhaps, the best indication yet that we will get a third trailer for before The Hobbit debuts next month. Still no sign of a rating on the Alberta Film Ratings website, however.

Thanks to Ringer Owain on the TORn forums for the find.

There’s a passage about half way through The Lord of the Rings where an orc called Ugluk forces captured hobbits Merry and Pippin to drink a hot beverage called “orc-draught”.

But seeing orcs outside of Middle-earth – and dwarfs in full prosthetics lining up for lunch in a large marquee close by – are just some of the many double takes that occur while spending two days watching filming on the US$500 million production.

[Read full story on stuff.co.nz]

In the spirit of trying to see who could invent the maddest rumour, our staff have put their heads together to try and come up with the most unbelievable rumour of all.

Surprise cameo: Tom Bombadil and Goldberry! Jackson has been quoted as saying “Dammit, I’m going to put those two in somewhere!” They will appear as specials guests at Beorn’s house. Ed Asner and Kate Winslet are rumored to be in talks to play the two roles.

Radagast is the true source of corruption. A major scoop has revealed that the secret purpose of Radagast’s role in these movies will be to serve as the source for Saruman’s corruption and ultimate turn to Sauron in ‘The Lord of the Rings.’

Smaug’s elaborate costume! A costume? Yes, it appears Smaug designs are being heavily based on the dragon from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, both in size and artistic form. Maleficent is widely regarded as one of the best cinematic dragons ever to grace a screen, one in which she was a two natured being: Maleficent the dangerous Sorceress and Maleficent the Dragon. With Benedict Cumberbatch voicing both roles in The Hobbit, it seems the idea has always been to have the Necromancer be the human form of Smaug. WETA is hard at work realizing how to emulate the original shapeshifting and still make this a unique creature design.

Even more Hot Dwarves! Peter Jackson has been actively recruiting male strippers from all over New Zealand to play Dain’s army. He claims that these dwarves will “put those soldiers from ’300′ to shame”.

Gollum’s grisly meal. In an effort to show the darker side of Gollum, in a scene leading up to the iconic “Riddles in the Dark” sequence, we will see Gollum viciously kill and eat a wayward goblin in a scene so gruesome that it will guarantee the movie receives an R rating in the USA. Peter Jackson is reportedly very proud of this sequence, as it harkens back to his early directorial years of grisly horror.

Legolas duets with Lindir. After Billy Boyd and Viggo Mortensen sang in the Lord of the Rings movies, Orlando Bloom is keen to show off his pipes. Our spies tell us he has volunteered to go ‘tra-la-la-lally’ with Bret Mckenzie.

Prancing Pony product placements. We’ve heard from an impeccable source that the Dwarves will stop at Bree and drink out of light-up glass goblets in a subtle Burger King product placement spot.

Beorn’s new secret sidekick. Wuzzle, an animal like creature that can talk, will be rendered by CGI. Negotiations are underway to have Wuzzle voiced by Eddie Murphy. Appearing at Beorn’s house, Wuzzle will provide comic relief in the second film.

First film drama! Jackson has decided that Balin will fall off a cliff in the Misty Mountains, seemingly to his death. He will then reappear in the second film. “I like to have at least one character fall off a cliff in each film,” Jackson told our source. “It doesn’t mean they can’t come back,” he quickly added, noting that Gandalf, Aragorn, and Gollum returned after suffering the same fate. Philippa Boyens observed that: “Sometimes I think Peter’s greatest influences as a child were Ray Harryhausen, Zulu, and Wile E. Coyote.”

A Goonies homage! While trying to escape the Goblins, Bilbo will discover Gollum’s cave after falling down a Goonies-style waterslide in a tense three-minute ride guaranteed to thrill film-goers. Bilbo’s falling down the Goonies-style waterslide ties in with the future plans for a Middle-earth theme park in Orlando. Other attractions include a One Ring toss game and whack-a-troll.

Even more Cumberbatch. Due to the phenomenal popularity of Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Jackson has decided not to confine him to motion-capture but to show him onscreen. He will play Elrond’s twin sons, Elrohir and Elladan, in Rivendell scenes and at the Battle of Five Armies. Weta Digital is updating the head-replacement technique used to allow Armie Hammer to play twins in The Social Network. When a reporter pointed out the twins do not figure in Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Jackson replied, “Well, they’re in The Lord of the Rings and we left them out of that, so it’s a fair swap.”

So. Many. Cameos! In order to get most of the cameos done in one grand sweep, Peter fills the distant shots of the Dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf with Katie Jackson, Billy Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Dan Hennah, Andrew Lesnie, Richard Taylor, Peter King, Alan Lee, John Howe, Gino Acevedo, Howard Shore, Christian River, Daniel Falconer, with Fran Walsh as Gandalf and himself as Bilbo. We think this explains the screwy horizon silhouette a lot!

Contributed by TORn Staffers Greendragon, Sarumann, Celedor, Momosala, Kristin, Garfeimao and Grammaboodawg

Riddles for the Ring – Featuring Bilbo and Gollum and it looks like a small cave and Gollum’s boat.

Attack of the Wargs – Very blurry – so can’t make out specifics, but for sure Thorin, Bifur, a large Goblin/Orc on a white warg and a really cool LEGO® Tree. Looks like there are some cool flame pieces as well – some multi-colored. A little Gandalf magic?

The Goblin King Battle – Pics are blurry, but it looks to feature…Goblin King, three Goblins, Ori, Nori and Dori as well as Gandalf. The set looks immense with probably a lot of action items.

Barrel Escape – Features Bilbo, Oin and Gloin and a few elves. Unfortunately we can’t read the names.

Escape from Mirkwood Spiders – This should cause a bit of contraversy Here we can clearly see that Tauriel and Legolas are rescuing the dwarves from the spiders. Featured in the set Legolas, Tauriel, Kili and Fili.

As we mentioned, check out the pics from the Flickr Stream as well as a Video.

G-i-P tells us that the runes are in the mode Angerthas Moria, and read: Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu! ‘Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you’ (Baruk Khazâd – right hand, Khazâd ai-mênu – left hand). Highlight to read the hidden text!

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For folks who were unable to make it, TOR has a handy list of what was discussed, both new and old, at the panels that TheOnering.net hosted at the convention. So, if you’re eager for spoilers and speculation, read on!

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When Peter Jackson returns to Middle Earth approximately a decade after Lord of the Rings, our very own Mikael Persbrandt is onboard to play Beorn. Recently, the two movies became three and several of the actors are being called back for re-shoots. Persbrandt is among them.

The character Beorn, portraied by Mikael Persbrandt in Peter Jackson’s trilogy about The Hobbit, is a man who can turn himself into a bear. He’s on the good side, and on the first official picture of Beorn you can see him next to Ian McKellen’s Gandalf.

For those who are keen to avoid spoilers, best to not look below the cut!

Here’s the English translation of the description from the German action figure leak which we understand from Herr-der-Ringe to be true:

The Goblin King is a huge, grotesquely bloated monster that in the years of his tyrannical rule over the miserable inhabitants of the Goblin town grew fat and flabby. The Goblin town is a collection of skew-whiff ramshackle huts deep in the caves of the Misty Mountains. He commands a bunch of foul, polluted, with scars and ulcers studded goblins.

Basically, they are bandits, they live by what they can pick up from passengers on the passes through the mountains. The Goblin King and his followers manage to capture Bilbo and the dwarves. The Goblin King is more wily and smarter than it seems. He takes pleasure in torturing his prisoners — he almost succeeds to finish off Thorin Oakenshield and his companions.

Update: Our wily message board members have noted the resemblance to this fellow below from the very first Hobbit production video.

Now Herr-der-Ringe has a spy image of the artwork.

The keys is exactly the same, but the runes on them seem to be slightly different? Was the artwork an earlier iteration that was subsequently simplified? Maybe it’s the equivalent of text greeking? Any runes experts out there able to help? Potential spoiler warning

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On the other hand, another action figure list which surfaced around the same time on German website SF-fan.de seems to be true according to our friends at Herr-der-Ringe.

If you haven’t read it already, TORn messageboard member Miruvorheron has provided a translation into English. Obviously, it’s full of some pretty heavy spoilers!