SAN DIEGO – Warner Bros. today announced what has been suspected and rumored: the studio is bringing “The Hobbit,” to the San Diego Comic-Con in a big way. Most surprising is just how big as director Peter Jackson, producer and co-screenwriter Philippa Boyens, actor and director Andy Serkis along with featured actors Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen and Richard Armitage are all expected at the Saturday, July 14 Comic-Con panel hosted by Warner Bros. The film sharing the three-hour slot with “The Hobbit,” is none other than “Hobbit” co-writer Guillermo del Toro‘s “Pacific Rim.” The director is also expected to be in attendance. TheOneRing.net’s team of 13 staffers (a lucky 13 that works nicely with the source material) will be reporting from the scene as much as possible, bringing the emotions, news, photos, video and quotes to the online audience.
The studio has been relatively quiet on the publicity front considering the budget and cultural size of the two films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” (celebrating its 75th anniversary in print this year) releasing a single trailer, a series of character photos and letting Peter Jackson’s own production diaries on his Facebook page function as pre-film publicity. That seems to be changing in a single moment as WB drops an atomic bomb of Middle-earth star power at the central event of the popular-culture calendar. Continue reading “‘Hobbit’ lineup announced for Comic-Con includes Jackson, McKellen, Serkis, Armitage, Freeman, Boyens”
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This account of Ian McKellen’s one-man-show the other night at the Opera House in Wellington in aid of the earthquake-struck Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch features some glorious photography of the performance.
We mingled with the Hobbit cast, Martin Freeman expressing his general surprise at what was happening “We had no idea about this” (though with a grin on his face) and everyone then crowded in around Ian as he explained what would happen next.
Photo to the right by Brendon Doran. See bigger, better versions by following the link below.
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Addendum: there’s also this review over at The Dominion Post.
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Ian McKellen’s one-man show to raise funds for the benefit of Christchurch’s earthquake-damaged Isaac Theatre Royal is in Wellington this weekend for its final few shows. Here’s a snippet of video from the last night’s show at the Opera House that features cameos from cast members from The Hobbit, and the locals.
Thank-you to RichardArmitageNet for information on images and video.
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Ian McKellan has given an interview about his stage tour of New Zealand, a fundraiser for the earthquake-damaged Isaac Royal Theatre in Christchurch. In it, he drops some news about The Hobbit. An excerpt from the article on stuff.co.nz.
McKellen expects shooting to be completed on The Hobbit by the end of next month. He says it’s likely he will return next year for a small amount of additional shooting for the second part The Hobbit: There and Back Again.
He adds that premieres are planned London, New York and Berlin and Tokyo for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in addition to Wellington. He doesn’t yet know which ones he will be attending.
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The folks over at Super Power Beat Down are obviously trying to tick off Tolkien fans. In the recent match-up of ‘Darth Vader vs. Gandalf,’ they’ve managed to make an amazing technical presentation of a battle between these two pop culture icons (well worth the watch!), but failed when it came down to making an educated decision on who could actually win a battle between the two. Ultimately if the competition comes down to a vote of the pop culture masses, we can always count on the slavish drones of Lucasites feverishly voting for anything that has the moniker of ‘Star Wars.’ Yea, I’m all kinds of sour grapes. Enjoy the video for the technical prowess and presentation. And, I may mention, the guy in the Darth Vader outfit is actually good TORn friend David Baxter (aka Treebeard)! He’s really tall, but next time I see him, I’ll try to send a collective slap for the Tolkien community. (P.S. – the views in this story of those of Calisuri, and not TheOneRing.net :P) [Super Power Beat Down] [Direct YouTube Link]
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Somehow we failed to post this New Zealand television interview with Ian McKellen talking about his efforts to restore a theater in earthquake ravaged Christchurch and seeing the first cut of “The Hobbit.”
Watch the interview right here.
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