DOS-colour-changes Courtesy of the efforts of Ringer mukankakuna on the TORn forums, here’s a video that reveals the differences between the trailer and the theatrical release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

As others have noted, perhaps the most significant change is to the colour-grading. The colours in the theatrical release are much more muted, and as one commenter put it, bleak. In particular, gone are the super-saturated blues that many objected to when the trailer was released. As someone who has railed against the teal and orange trend, I think the more natural colour palette is definitely better Continue reading “See the differences between the trailer and the theatrical release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”

aragorn on horseback Here’s the third of our four semi-final contestants in our 2014 Middle-earth March Madness contest — Aragorn, descendent of the line of Isildur and Elendil, heir to the throne of Gondor and Arnor. In this piece, our own Quickbeam examines just what makes this character tick, and the traits that truly make him … king.


Kingly proof…

by Cliff “Quickbeam” Broadway

Strider, Aragorn, Longshanks, Telcontar, Elessar, and several other names come to mind for this particular character. But the first impression a non-Tolkien outsider would get from a man who has a dozen aliases is that he was probably a criminal. Maybe they’d think he was constantly moving from place to place, switching names because he was the equivalent of a modern-day “identity thief” who was on the lam! Funny how things in our modern world don’t always reflect clearly on mythology.

Continue reading “Aragorn’s kingly proof…”

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Credit: http://www.walkoffame.com/
Credit: http://www.walkoffame.com/
On April 2 Orlando Bloom received his own Hollywood Walk of Fame star at 6927 Hollywood Boulevard next to the TCL Chinese Theatre and Madame Tussauds Hollywood. Emcee Leron Gubler, President & CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and guest speaker Forest Whitaker and David Leveaux were on hand to help Orlando Bloom unveil the 2,521st star in the category of Motion Pictures. Continue reading “See Orlando Bloom’s Walk of Fame star unveiled”

Beorn_Blu-ray We didn’t see a lot of Mikael Persbrandt’s Beorn in the end in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and arguably he remained all the more intriguing for it.

Here, Persbrandt chats extensively with AB Svensk Filmindustris about the big skinchanger. A choice quote where he talks about the vocal effects:

When it comes to portraying something that big — he is like, Beorn is, like, three-and-a-half metres long or something. Four metres, maybe. His lungs are like 18 litres [in capacity]. So what they do — they run it through programs I think. I have quite a deep voice myself, but they still they enchanted it a little bit.

Continue reading “Mikael Persbrandt talks about Beorn”