Hobbit Cast News | Lord of the Rings & Tolkien News - TheOneRing.net Fan Community, since 1999

Join the conversation on Twitter right now with #OneLastParty as we chat with actor John Bell (Bain son of Bard!). John is joining us to help promote ‘The One Last Party,’ our celebration of all six Peter Jackson films taking place in Hollywood, CA Feb 21st 2015. Even if you can only contribute $1, every bit will help us bring fans and cast together for this special #OneLastParty ! [Contribute here]

#OneLastParty Tweets

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Over on AICN, Quint recently had a long chat with Martin Freeman about the conclusion to The Hobbit, and his own role as Bilbo within the three films.

As well as chatting about the effect of the three-film split, working with Peter Jackson and a his own acting process. As Quint points out, “he’s also pretty blunt about Bilbo taking a back seat at this point in the story.” Click the link at the bottom to head to AICN and read the whole interview. Continue reading “Martin Freeman chats about all things Bilbo”

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A taste of The One Last Party – online this weekend!

This Sunday evening, 21st December, from 6 to 7.30pm UTC (1 to 2.30pm EST) TheOneRing.net will be hosting a LIVE TWEET with actor John Bell, who plays Bain son of Bard in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. John will be on hand to answer any questions you may have for him, and TORn staffers will be there to chat, and to answer questions about The One Last Party – and anything else you may care to ask us!

All you need to do to join in is be on twitter this Sunday, 6pm UTC. Tweet your questions at that time to @theoneringnet, with the hashtag #OneLastParty. Our aim is to get the tag trending, so we can spread the word to all about February’s event!

So join us on Sunday; chat with TORn and John Bell; and help us let all of fandom know about our special event next year. Party with us online so we can all party together in person in Los Angeles!

Join us in Los Angeles in February at The One Last Party

We’re hosting a Party of Special Magnificence next February — a final toast to all SIX movies, both The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy.

We’re inviting you to join us and make it happen through our Indiegogo campaign — so we can all celebrate Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth movies together!

Visit our campaign page and find out how you can help!

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MIRAMAR, New Zealand — The director’s tent.

Inside a sound stage, or outside on location, it is a constant and central fixture on a movie shoot. It is home base for Peter Jackson and his team.

It is sacred ground — more or less.

The decisions made inside it, by the team, under Jackson’s direction, are crucial to the project where it is determined what will later happen in front of the camera.

So every day, whatever happens to a set or a sound stage overnight, the tent is there set up and waiting for the core of the shooting unit.

Editor Jabez Olssen, Script Supervisor Victoria Sullivan and First Assistant Director Carolynne Cunningham call it home during the shoot. Cunningham is outside of the director’s tent a lot, Olssen and Sullivan less so and Producer Zane Weiner is always near. Jackson’s assistant Sebastian Meek is in and out at all times, bringing badly needed tea and watching the door from outside to eliminate distractions inside.

Jackson lives on tea and Meek has a talent for having it handy at the perfect moment.

SETTING THE SCENE

In April, 2012, as a representative of fandom via TheOneRing.net, I was invited to be on set during five weeks of the filming of the Hobbit films. At the time, it was still scheduled to be two movies and the production had just settled in to shoot in studio instead of on location. Much was unknown then, that now is completely familiar to fans.

When I first arrived at Stone Street Studios, the publicity team took me to set, showed me the ropes and left me to my own devices during the rest of my stay to meet folks and get interviews, which was great — no time and no need for babysitting.

I was there to be a good guest and to observe. Two weeks later I was definitely convinced I had no chance of talking to Peter Jackson, except for an occasional, “Hello, how are you getting on?” from him during my time there.

Fans world-wide know from production diaries, how exhausted Jackson gets during the shooting phase of filmmaking. It is important to really understand why.

Peter Jackson is a busy guy. Particularly when he is shooting, there is a lot to do in a day and a lot of people that need to understand his vision in order to do their jobs well; he is the hub of the great spinning wheel.

He is the director, a writer and a producer — each a big job on its own. Many films have one of each of those, or several of some, all working together. But Jackson was all of them at once and combining titles didn’t mean there was less work to be done. Just because he was reviewing shots didn’t mean the script didn’t need his touch or that the art department didn’t need his input or the next day’s schedule didn’t need approval. Others were partners on all of these roles but they also required Jackson.

In a day he might need to meet with the effects supervisor, set designers, concept designers, costume designers, the composer or see actual costumes for approval, or changes, to name just a few of the many things that require his time. He will confirm the schedule with his Assistant Director, producers and spend time with the Second Unit Director Andy Serkis, to make sure all is to his liking. They need sets built, greens grown, existing sets decorated, concept guys working ahead, materials guys building everything, maximizing actors’ time, feeding all of those people, screening extras, bringing in the right number of prosthetic artists for the day’s schedule of actors and extras and on and on. In short, there is never a shortage of people who need Jackson’s input to work on his vision and it takes the logistics of — dare I say — planning a battle with five armies.

In short, everything goes through Peter Jackson.

Those are the reasons “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” and his other Hobbit movies are genuinely Peter Jackson movies. It also means he is booked.

Solid.

THE FINAL HOURS

And so it was, the last day of my time on The Hobbit set, after several assurances that my interview with Peter Jackson would happen — it did.

Lunch happened and on the location set of Dale, up on a hill overlooking Evans Bay to Wellington, I was invited to that nearly sacred director’s tent to sit and talk with PJ — just the two of us alone. (One editor asked me if we ate together in the tent but I don’t think so, but why many memories are crystal clear of that meeting, anything we ate or didn’t eat isn’t clear. I just have no idea.)

I had been inside before, but not often. The day I shadowed him, I spent several hours, trying to melt into the background. This was his sanctuary and office.

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In a rare move, Stephen Colbert was granted an interview (er…audience) with none other than Smaug himself on his American television show “The Colbert Report”. As many of you know, Stephen is a great Tolkien fan, and Smaug seemingly left his last press interview of the day just for him.

The two share some of their common political interests, and Smaug discusses some of the difficulties of working on the Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy – as well as his distaste for several “pretender” Hollywood dragons. Continue reading “Stephen Colbert interviews Smaug the Magnificent”

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As you know, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies had its world premiere in London last week. Members of the cast and crew gathered in the city, with some of them seeing the film the night before the premiere, but many heading down the red carpet to experience the completed movie for the first time.

TORn Senior Staffer greendragon was there to catch up with the folks in Leicester Square that night. Amongst those who stopped by to chat with her were stars Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom, Ian McKellen and others, as well as director Peter Jackson and screen writer Philippa Boyens. In addition to hearing what they thought of the film, and how it felt to be at the end of their (long expected? unexpected?) journey, greendragon made sure to invite them all to celebrate at The One Last Party in Los Angeles next February – which, of course, YOU can attend too. (Click here for more information.)

Enjoy this footage from that star-studded night in London:

[Special thanks to cameraman and editor Matthew Rodriguez; should you be looking for a film maker in London, you can reach him at rodriguezrmatthew at gmail.com]

[Buy tickets to The One Last Party here]

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LIVE Right Now! #OneLasrtParty with @JohnBell (Bain son of Bard)

Category: Hobbit Cast News

Join us in Los Angeles in February at The One Last Party