Martin Freeman Jameson Empire Awards 2013Whilst most of us were busy being excited about Peter Jackson’s ‘sneak peek’ going on live today, over in the UK our friends at Empire were busy with their very own movie awards! The Jameson Empire Awards 2013 were held tonight at the Grosvenor House Hotel, in a cold and snowy London.  These awards are voted for by movie fans themselves – and in a demonstration of the impeccable taste of fans everywhere, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was awarded Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Film. Sir Ian McKellen was there to collect the award, and he gave a shout out from the stage to his two cast mates who also attended the ceremony, Martin Freeman and Adam Brown.

Freeman soon had his own moment in the spotlight, as he beat nominees including Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln to win the award for Best Actor! In typically tongue-in-cheek style, Freeman commented, ‘I always wondered if it was possible to quantify the best actor, and now I realise that it is, and it’s me! What a load of old rubbish I was in with…’  He later went on to say, modest as ever, ‘It’s possible that my performance was not the best of the year, but I’ll take it!’  What a charming chap he is; ever ready with a wink and a smile, as Empire’s picture of him shows!

Empire’s blog of the awards ceremony can be read here; check back to their homepage later for more pics and reports from the night, and to find out who the other winners were.  Many congratulations on their awards, to Martin Freeman and to all our friends involved with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey!

The countdown, how exciting!

  • Live Stream starts now… with Jed Brophy at the Post Production house
  • Peter is reading the newspaper
  • spoiler alert, it’s great weather on Monday
  • Cricket scores shared for the English fans
  • Motion capture stage visited, with Azog and another Orc, more fighting with the orcs, including orc archery
  • Dam Busters, someone should remake it so Jed can be in it.
  • James Bond walk of fame is rather cool
  • Pre-vis department, Pre-visualisation (animated sequences)
  • I see Smaug poster
  • Rather comic version of Smaug on a computer screen (psych)
  • the T-Rex with wings look a bit like Pete’s Dragon
  • Rivendell library is rather cool looking, even if never used
  • Jed loves Goldfinger
  • And then we enter the Editing room with Jabez Olssen
  • One Million years B.C was the poster over PJ’s bed as a kid
  • Now to see editing happening
  • Bard is taking the Dwarves and their barrels across the river, in a boat.
  • Bilbo – I should never come along, we have a saying in the Shire “never venture east”.
  • He seems rather miserable
  • “I should never have left Bagend. We have a saying in the Shire, we learn it from birth, Never Venture East.”
  • Peter and Jed agree that Aidan is one of the Hot Dwarves (Lisa)
  • Jed looks very waterlogged
  • We get the final cut – and it’s Bard saying “So Master Hobbit, why did you venture East?”
  • Yeah Luke, sends a little message to say hello to the fans. The One Ringer, that’s us!
  • Jed teases that Bard is out of the film but Peter says that Bard is one of the cool things about the next film
  • Here come the video questions.
  • Chris asks about problems with a middle film?
  • PJ answers – middle films are complicated, but with multiple story lines different character arcs and plot lines take over.
  • Thranduil on his throne, awesome.
  • elf troop, with Legolas and Tauriel, fighting orcs
  • Laketown and the Master looking smarmy, and his manservant looks a bit like Grima.
  • Stephen Fry says he’s taking over from Orlando as the most desirable man in the films
  • Stephen sends a video, and mentions that England is decimating NZ in Cricket
  • Chinese girls ask questions about Legolas and Orlando and why he was cast and whether or not he’s similar to his Elf
  • Orlando sends a video to ask PJ a question – he wants to know what image he is most excited to see onscreen.
  • PJ says fans are most excited to see Smaug and Bilbo together and so is he.
  • Stephen’s video has been running in the background because he’s so wordy, but he says he has no idea if he’s in the last film
  • Marina in Canada – asks about new characters
  • PJ answers – Thranduil, Bard (part of the family now), They’ve made Bard like Robin Hood, is he good or bad. And of course, Tauriel is new, a new creation. Yay for her costume, finally getting to really see it.
  • Tauriel wears a leather
  • Brazilian kids asking questions, call it LOTR and pronounce it as a word
  • The kids ask about PJ’s favorite weapons, theirs is Gimli’s and Gloin’s axe.
  • PJ loves Theoden’s sword, with the horse motifs.
  • And back to London and Stephen Fry’s video still running 😉
  • PJ was punishing Stephen about his comments about the NZ Cricket team
  • Twitter question about how difficult it is to stay on track or schedule
  • They mention the Flood in Nelson as one thing that messed up shooting
  • Surprise question with from Stephen Colbert – asks about the Sindar Elves and the Avari elves? PJ says yes about the Elves
  • So PJ rags on Stephen Colbert about two different sizes of mugs on his show, and how the quality of the printing on the mugs is poor quality
  • Twitter question – does he edit barefoot?  Yes, he can be barefoot.
  • Lee Pace, woohoo, looking rather fab, as usual. Lee is looking forward to seeing the animosity of Dwarves and Elves in his own halls.
  • Twitter question – would Jed like to inflict any dwarf torture on PJ?
  • Jed says maybe, but has to say no because he wants to continue to work with him.
  • Great story about the Dwarves on the spit, and how Mark Hadlow got sick and asked to take a break and no one heard him. Poor thing
  • Billy Boyd sends a video question – In FOTR, they went as far as the Misty Mountains, but he knows in The Hobbit they go further East. Billy wants to know about any new Wildlands.
  • PJ answers about Mirkwood, and shows artwork the darkness and foreboding nature of Mirkwood. Misty and mirky and hard to walk through, to be sure.
  • Evangeline sends a question – What will Thranduil’s realm be like?
  • PJ mentions that Green Screens is why she does not know what the realm looks like. The artwork shows a bridge over a raging river to a structure like Rivendell, but inside the forest. The realm looks like Rivendell and Lorien mixed together, but underground.
  • Dom Monaghan asks a question, he is holding the camera himself.
  • What is the best PJ rumor you’ve heard that is not true?
  • What are you happiest about in transferring book to film?
  • PJ answers about the craziest rumor – people asked him if he was going to move his family to a ship off the coast to avoid paying Taxes. He gets too seasick to do that.
  • Twitter question – will the Necromancer play a bigger part, and PJ says yes and nothing else.
  • Here comes a look at the movie, but the Trailer is not ready yet.
  • PJ says that Gandalf goes to see the tombs of the Witch-king
  • Gandalf in a cavern, showing a dark doorway that appears to be blown open from within. He then goes inside, and sees a bird flies out of broken stonework, and then sees Radagast. The Nine tombs were broken open from the inside.
  • The vlogs will be starting up again, even though this is very much like one.
  • Sequence of action from throughout the film concluding with ‘We are the Dwarves of Erebor, we have come to reclaim our homeland’
  • Ran for about 55 minutes

Remember, if you missed the Peter Jackson hosted first look at “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,”  or just want to watch it over again, a modified version will be archived on the Trilogy’s official website  www.thehobbit.com/sneak. To access the footage, use your UltraViolet code on your copy “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack or 2-Disc Special Edition DVD.

Also, be sure to stay tuned to TheOneRing.net for a detailed analysis. Coming soon!

The Desolation of Smaug sneak peak just ended and those of us who were lucky enough to see it I think will agree it was fabulous! It started with a short tour by PJ and Jed Brophy of Stone Street Studios that ended in the editing room. There, we were treated to many clips, finished and unfinished, of various parts of the movie in response to fan’s questions. It ended with a finished, trailer-like excerpt of Gandalf and Radagast in Dol Guldur, and maybe a dozen other shorter clips from filming and from the movie itself. Fabulous!

For those of you who missed it, fear not! Our staff is busy compiling detailed commentary complete with screen caps!! So, stay tuned here for much, much more. It will be posted here on the Home Page soon. Our friends at Warner Bros. also remind us that If you missed the Peter Jackson hosted first look at “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,”  or just want to watch it over again, a modified version will be archived on the Trilogy’s official website  www.thehobbit.com/sneak.  To access the footage, use your UltraViolet code on your copy “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack or 2-Disc Special Edition DVD.

UPDATE: we’ve just been informed by Warner Bros. that we can post no screen caps of the sneak peek. We apologize for disappointing any of our loyal readers, especially those who weren’t able to see it. We *will*, however, be posting more details and commentary from our staff very soon!

Hobbitus Ille: The Latin Hobbit The review copy of Hobbitus Ille by Mark Walker is a beautifully presented hardcover edition with art and interior maps in the style of early English copies and is provided by Harper Collins.

Walker has taken up a very brave challenge in providing us with the first Latin translation of Tolkien’s The Hobbit. His intent was to provide as direct a translation of Tolkien’s own words as possible and the end result is a complete and unabridged volume where even the poetry is in Latin. This direct translation is not the hallmark of the best translations, nor is it the Classical Latin of Caesar and Cicero. Continue reading “Reviewed: Hobbitus Ille”

If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.

(Updates in Red Below) Today is the day! At 3pm ET (worldwide), Peter Jackson will be sharing an exclusive peek at ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug‘ and answering previously submitted video questions from fans worldwide. The staff here at TheOneRing.net will be covering the event but we wanted to share a few tidbits of information before the big event…

1. Limited Access

hobbit_auj ultraviolet code

The live event is limited to holders of an UltraViolet™ code, available by purchasing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which is in most locations now on Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack and 2-disc DVD Special. Users should go to www.thehobbit.com/sneak at 3pm ET and enter their code to participate. According to James Nesbitt, an ‘edited version will be archived for later viewing.’ If you are unlucky enough to live in an area where the film has not been released on Blu-ray/DVD yet, at least you know you’ll be able to see the event at a later date. If you read the fine print on the sheet included in your Blu-Ray/DVD however, it does say ‘Content may not be available after 5/24/13.’ This is what we call ‘covering our butts’ with fine print. Our expectation is the content will be available.

The broadcast will be in English only and last no longer than 1 hour. 

Attention UK Ringers: Thanks to Ringer Morgulvortex for sending along this info…

If you pre-ordered The Hobbit (Blu-ray or 3D Blu-ray) from Amazon.co.uk before today a code will have been sent to your e-mail address. Even though it’s being released in April!!!

Also we have a different website to view the live event; http://wwws.warnerbros.co.uk/thehobbitpart1/sneak/

2. Technical Requirements

According to more fine print….

Users should have a PC with Windows 2000 or higher or Mac computer with OS X 10.3 or higher and a high-speed internet connection, and Adobe Flash Player 10.0.22+ plug-in. Browser should be Firefox 1.1 or above, Internet Explorer 7.0 or above, Safari 1.0 or above, Google Chrome or Opera.

Mobile users should have iOS 3.0 or above or Android OS Version 3.0 or above or devices with a Flash plugin.

3. Start Time

The event starts at 3pm ET – Click here for a full list of the start time in your region! [Start Time]

4. Fan Questions

Peter will be answering previously submitted fan questions. These questions were required to be in the form of a video and submitted by March 19th. There is unlikely going to be a ‘live’ component to interact with Peter, but we do know the official hashtag for the event is #Hobbit2SneakPeek. Update: You can also tweet questions LIVE to Peter Jackson using #askPeterlive. So tweet away!

We of course will have loads of fans hanging out in our live chatroom, Barlimans. [Connect to Barlimans]

5. So what will we actually see?!

Bottom line, we’ll probably see a condensed trailer of some sort. We can expect to see our first glimpses of Legolas, Tauriel, Beorn and maybe Bard. We did see quite a bit of Smaug in AUJ, but we don’t believe we’ll get a full reveal of Smaug at this point. (Although it would be amazing if we did!!) 

Since WB is hoping folks continue to buy copies of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and log in with their UltraViolet code to view this sneak peek, we can deduce we won’t see this tease in the form of a trailer until May/June in front of a big WB summer release.

6. What about TheOneRing.net’s Coverage?

During the event, you can join our staff in Barlimans to chat during the entire event. We will also be tweeting along with #Hobbit2SneakPeek @theoneringnet.

Immediately following the event, our staff will be compiling our comments and posting a comprehensive analysis of everything revealed.

You’ll want to stay tuned to TheOneRing.net for the next day or so as we digest every single detail!

So we’ll see you at the big event!

Jump over to www.thehobbit.com/sneak!

 

Legolas in vlog #8 courtesy of DarkJackal We all know that Legolas Greenleaf is pretty speedy with that Lothlorien bow of his. But that’s in Movieland. Surely it’s impossible to replicate in real life.

Danish archer Lars Andersen believes he’s rediscovered ancient techniques that allow him to shoot as fast — or faster than — Legolas does in the movie of The Lord of the Rings.

The trick? He holds not just the one arrow in his hand, but every single arrow he intends to shoot — so each arrow is ready to be fired immediately. There’s a good view of it at around 3 min 15 secs in the video below, and some interesting and insightful discussion of the technique in this old post over on Reddit. Continue reading “A real-life archer faster than Legolas?”