How exactly did New Line go about mounting its campaign that 10 years ago won The Return of the King a history-making 11 Academy Awards? Vanity Fair interviewed many of those at New Line who were involved in the multi-million-dollar campaign, and the effect that the commercial and critical success had on the way Hollywood views fantasy films.
The biggest problem –– and this started with Fellowship –– was we had the dreaded F word; we were the fantasy movie, and there was no fantasy movies that ever won for best picture. Russell Schwartz, executive vice president of marketing at New Line Cinema in 2004.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug delivered Warner Bros. its largest-ever three-day box office takings in China as the film finally debuted there over the weekend.
Gondor is under seige and cut off from its allies as the forces of Sauron swarm Minas Tirith. Can the city hold?
‘Nay,’ they said, ‘not if the Nameless One himself should come, not even he could enter here while we yet live.’ But some answered: ‘While we yet live? How long? He has a weapon that has brought low many strong places since the world began. Hunger. The roads are cut. Rohan will not come.’
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has snared seven nominations at the 2014 edition of The Empire Awards. The awards will be announced on Sunday March 30, 2014, in London.
Readers are undoubtedly aware of the five-page handwritten letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to H. Cotton Minchin that recently went on auction. If you missed it, The Guardian picks the eyes out of it, while Tolkien Library has assembled a transcript of the entire contents.
However, Tolkien scholar John Garth has also recently blogged about what the letter reveals about the Great War inspiration behind Sam Gamgee. Read on to learn more!
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We’re delighted to bring you this excerpt from Cinefex’s forthcoming behind-the-scenes account of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Written by Joe Fordham, the 25-page feature draws on in-depth interviews with key effects artists who worked on the film, and is accompanied by behind-the-scenes photos and frame clips — many of them exclusive.