This past Thursday night, the Visual Effects branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences met to vote for the five VFX nominees at this year’s Oscars. As expected, voters were highly impressed by the frontrunners Gravity and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. But the fellow potential nominees were no slouches either. Presentations of the special effects work behind Pacific Rim, World War Z, and others left quite an impression as well. Continue reading “‘Smaug’ Visual Effects wow at Academy Awards bake-off”
Category: Headlines
Another group has released their nominations, and Dan Hennah has received a nod in the Art Directors Guild’s “Fantasy Film” category. Fellow nominees include Elysium, Gravity, Oblivion, and Star Trek Into Darkness.
The ADG’s ceremony will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 8. Continue reading “‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ receives nomination from the Art Directors Guild”
Among other awards groups announcing their nominations today, the Costume Designers Guild also released their nods. Ann Maskrey, Richard Taylor, and Bob Buck were nominated for their work on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, along with the costume designers of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Oz the Great and Powerful. Continue reading “Costume Designers Guild nominates ‘The Desolation of Smaug’”
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) announced their annual award nominations this morning. ‘The Desolation of Smaug’ picked up 2 nominations. Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor, and Rick Findlater are nominated for Best Make-up and Hair. They are nominated alongside worthy contenders ‘The Butler’, ‘Behind the Candelabra’, ‘American Hustle’, and ‘The Great Gatsby’. Each film has its own unique style or time period, whether set in Middle-earth or a fantastical version of the roaring 20’s. The overall awards buzz (and love) for ‘American Hustle’ might swing momentum its way even in this category.
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, and Eric Reynolds are nominated for Best Special Visual Effects. In this tough field, ‘The Desolation of Smaug’ is going up against ‘Pacific Rim’, ‘Gravity’, ‘Iron Man 3’ and ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’. Smaug the Mighty is facing the most competition from the groundbreaking effects in ‘Gravity’, the odds-on favorite. ‘Gravity’ has the most nominations with 11 overall including for Best Film and Director. Following behind are ’12 Years a Slave’ and ‘American Hustle’ with 10 nominations each.
With all the rumours running around the interwebs lately about the latest Hobbit law suit and the claim that it could scuttle the release of The Hobbit: There and Back Again. We asked attorney Douglas C. Kane, who posts here on TORn as Voronwë the Faithful on our Message boards, if there was any truth to these rumours.
Today (January 4th) is actor Graham McTavish’s birthday – Happy Birthday to him from everyone here at TORn! Back at the start of December, our favourite tattooed dwarf sat down with TORn staffer greendragon, to chat about The Hobbit, about his latest project (playing Dougal MacKenzie in the Outlander series), and to reveal what it’s like to spend months working with a bunch of sweaty men in fat suits – and even to risk inviting them over for parties! Continuing greendragon’s ‘Inside the Middle-earth Actor’s Studio’ series, McTavish also discussed at length his approach to acting, what he sees as the greatest challenge in creating a role, and how he began his career on the stage. McTavish is an excellent raconteur, and there were many laughs during the conversation – read on to find out all that he had to say.
Continue reading “Graham McTavish talks exclusively to TheOneRing.net”