Romeo and Juliet Orlando Bloom stopped by the EW offices last week to chat about his new role in a Broadway production of Romeo & Juliet as well as other things, including a little about The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Bloom is currently making his Broadway debut at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in Romeo and Juliet opposite two-time Tony nominee Condola Rashad in a modern-day setting with the original language directed by David Leveaux.

Chatting with fans, he discussed his Broadway warm-up routine, how he got involved in the production and the challenges of working in front of a live audience. Continue reading “Orlando Bloom chats about R&J and The Hobbit with EW”

In case you missed it, here’s the “Ask Me Anything” session that Benedict Cumberbatch conducted the other day on Reddit. He didn’t divulge much about The Desolation of Smaug, but he did prove extraordinarily charming, polite and erudite.

Here’s a couple of my favourite responses below, and a link to the entire 14,276-post thread for your reading (and skimming) pleasure. Comes with a warning for sweary language and adult themes. Continue reading “Read the Benedict Cumberbatch “ask me anything” Reddit session”

The Hobbit Visual Companion Our friends at Harper Collins — the publishers of Tolkien in the UK -– tell us that they’re running another competition in addition to their How do you see Smaug? that is on right now.

This new competition offers the chance to win The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey Visual Companion signed by four members the cast — Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett and Richard Armitage. Continue reading “Win a copy of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Visual Companion that has been signed by the cast members!”

Benedict-Cumberbatch.jpg 446×251 pixels We hear that Benedict “Smaugtastic” Cumberbatch will be participating in an “ask me anything” session on Reddit on Friday Oct 11 at 2:30pm EDT.

What time is that in your particular time zone? Visit this handy little Event Announcer time conversion table that we’ve created for you over on Time and Date. That should out when you need to set your alarm.

Where precisely? You’ll want to head to http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/. Continue reading “Benedict Cumberbatch ‘ask me anything’ on Reddit on October 11”

You may recall a week or so ago, Empire Magazine teased a low-resolution image of Bilbo wrapped in blankets in Lake-town. Now, courtesy of our German friends at Herr-de-ringe-film.de we have this rather fine high-resolution version for your viewing pleasure! (Word of warning, this is a largish (approx 5mb) file that is 4896 x 3264 pixels. So it may take a little while to load on slower connections.)

…the dwarves’ good feeling towards the little hobbit grew stronger every day. There were no more groans or grumbles. They drank his health, and they patted him on the back, and they made a great fuss of him; which was just as well, for he was not feeling particularly cheerful. He had not forgotten the look of the Mountain, nor the thought of the dragon, and he had besides a shocking cold. For three days he sneezed and coughed, and he could not go out, and even after that his speeches at banquets were limited to “Thag you very buch.”

Continue reading “See Bilbo in Lake-town in high-resolution!”