First off, we’d like to continue to send our prayers and well wishes to all our friends in NZ, who once again are dealing with a significant earthquake.
Over on the west coast of the US, the last San Diego Comic-Con is upon on us. Our LIVE stream, sponsored by Badali Jewelry, will be running all day long, starting at 10am PT. Our LIVE coverage subsite features staff updates from the twitterverse, facebook, instagram and vine (#tornlive #sdcc #smaugcon @theonering.net). That means you get to see real time photos and mini-videos all day long as we countdown to the end of the show. And of course, you can chat right as you watch the live stream in either ustream or Barlimans!
Don’t forget about some of the great opportunities available until the end of the day…
Enter the $800 Dark Rider of Morder Giveaway from SideshowCollectibles.com [Details]
Save 15% OFF everything from BadaliJewelry.com with promo code SMAUG.
Snag the ‘We Can Do It!’ Poster and other great Comic-Con items from our own shop.theonering.net
Don’t forget to send your support for our LIVE events. If you appreciated our coverage, please consider a donation.
If you have a moment, use our comments section to tell us what you thought of our coverage! [Live Coverage]
If you have been following our LIVE stream coverage from Comic-Con 2013, you may have noticed we experienced a few technical hiccups with the video stream yesterday. Well, thanks to our long time friends at Badali Jewelry, we can now say those technical woes are behind us! With their support as our major stream sponsor, we can now bring you full coverage for the remaining two days of the event.
And possibly even more exciting news for collectors…they have given us an exclusive 15% OFF coupon to use both on the Comic-Con floor and online at their website badalijewelry.com. Simply use the code ‘SMAUG‘ during checkout and your discount will be applied. The offer is good until the end of the monthy, so act fast!
Badali was the first advertiser on TheOneRing.net way back in 1999. We are so privileged to have their continued support today. Please visit their site and build up your own collections with their amazing products and offerings!
In case you missed our post earlier, we’ve listed all of their Comic-Con specials here.
While have yet to see his work in ‘The Hobbit,’ we’d like to wish a very Happy Birthday to actor Benedict Cumberbatch. The man who will be Smaug turns 37 today! Here’s his bio from Wikipedia…
Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor. His most acclaimed roles include Stephen Hawking in the BBC drama Hawking (2004); William Pitt in the historical filmAmazing Grace (2006); protagonist Stephen Ezard in the miniseries thriller The Last Enemy (2008); Paul Marshall in Atonement (2007); Bernard in Small Island (2009); and Sherlock Holmes in the modern BBC adaptation series Sherlock (2010–12).
He also starred as Christopher Tietjens in the BBC/HBO co-produced miniseries, Parade’s End, which first aired August 2012. He portrayed Smaug the dragon through voice and motion capture and also provided the motion capture for the Necromancer in Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit trilogy (2012).
Preview night at San Diego Comic Con is just that, a 3 hour preview of the show, with the Exhibitor’s hall open, and several sneak peeks of upcoming network Pilot shows for the Fall Season of new television. There are no panels or major presentations going on, just the room screening the pilots (no guests) and the gigantic exhibit hall. Here you see an image of the side approach to the WETA booth from a bit of a distance, just look for Gandalf watching over everyone. Continue reading “SDCC Wednesday Preview night Recap”
The geek world is about to descend on San Diego for Comic Con International, and that includes a large contingent of TORn staffers and many of our dear friends, we hope you will all join us.
We just got a note from the team at Badali Jewelry, to give a sneak peek at some of their new Hobbit themed jewelry and remind us of some special promotions.
Hello TORn! Can’t wait to see you all next week. I just wanted to pass along our announcements for this years SDCC, which include the debut of 2 new Hobbit pieces! There may actually be a third, but we just have to wait and see if it will be ready when we leave on Wednesday. 😉
Can’t wait to see what the third exclusive piece is, let’s hope it is ready by Wednesday. Badali will be hosting TORn at their booth #532/534, which will allow you to look at all their beautiful jewelry, and then look at all our pins, shirts and poster.
We will also be debuting 3 brand new Officially Licensed The Hobbit pieces; Sterling Silver Baggins Cuff Links as well as White and Yellow Bronze Khuzdul Dwarven Battle Axes, available as either a necklace or a key chain. The Battle Axe features the Khuzdul Battlecry etched into the blade: Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu! – “Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you!”
We are bringing back the Comic Con Preview Night Exclusive Sale for 2013. During Preview Night (Wednesday the 17th) all customers will receive 30% off their entire purchase. This is a chance to receive the lowest prices on our jewelry for the entire year. We will have a full inventory of Arkenstone Replicas, Bag End Door Necklaces/Key Chains, Thror’s Key Necklaces/Key Chains, Sterling Silver One Rings, Nenya’s, The Arkenstone Necklace, Smaug Ring’s and Gollum Gold One Ring Necklaces, as well as select sizes of Sterling Silver Narya’s, Vilya’s and Gollum Creature Rings. Sterling Silver One Rings will be marked down from $108.00 to $75.60. Sterling Silver Nenya’s will be marked down from $99.00 to $69.30. Sterling Silver Arkenstone Necklaces will be marked down from $39.00 to $27.30! These will be some of the absolute lowest prices on our Lord of The Ring’s Jewelry that can be found all year long.
We are even offering 30% off the regular retail price for any orders that are placed with us at our booth on Preview Night. This means that literally everything on our website will be available at the 30% discount, including all 10k. and 14k. gold items. 10k. Yellow Gold One Rings can be order on preview night for $646.80, that’s a savings of $277.20 off the regular retail price.
If you can’t make it to Preview Night be sure to check out our ad in the events guide for a money saving coupon that can be used for the remainder of the con and be sure to stop by the booth to see what items are on sale.
In addition to our Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit Jewelry we will have new products for our Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time line and Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive line. We will also have a full inventory of our Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicle, Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn and Elantris, H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu and many of our other popular lines in stock.
And of course, we will be holding our annual Free Jewelry Drawing. This year you can choose from a Sterling Silver Thror’s Key Necklace, A Sterling Silver Eolian Talent Pipes Pin or Necklace from the Kingkiller Chronicle line or a Sterling Silver Lanfear’s Signet Ring from The Wheel of Time line. Entries will be taken through the entire convention and the drawing will be held on Sunday, July 21st at 1:00pm. Winner need not be present to win.
This Preview Night 30% discount really is one of the best deals you will find from Badali Jewelry, so peruse their website to see what you like and know the asking price, and then visit the booth on Wednesday and buy it on sale.
Hope to see you all this year and have a wonderful SDCC 2013!
Ringer RedOrmTheViking offers some intriguing analysis of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. He proposes that Rob Kazinsky, who was originally slated to play the role of Fili, actually appears on screen once during the Misty Mountains song sequence at the beginning of the film. However, because he’s mostly in shadow and because the focus, as the camera pans around the corner and into the room, is Thorin Oakenshield with his pipe, Kazinsky’s Fili is easy to overlook.
RedOrmTheViking’s analysis is directly below, with my comments afterwards.
BRITISH actor Rob Kazinsky was originally cast in the role of Fili for The Hobbit films. He can be seen on the first production v-log walking around the Bag End set with other members of the cast during the “blocking” phase of pre-production.
A couple of months after the release of the first production v-log, Kazinsky dropped out of the film just as principal photography began, citing personal reasons. The role would ultimately be filled by New Zealand actor Dean O’Gorman.
Rob Kazinsky at Bag End. However, if my suspicions are correct, it appears that one single shot of Kazinsky as Fili made it into the final cut of the film, and it’s when the dwarves begin to sing the Misty Mountains song in Bag End. This is the shot in question (with the brightness kicked up a few notches).
Go back and watch that scene. Fili is the only dwarf in the entire company whose face you don’t see throughout the whole singing sequence. All of the other dwarves are accounted for, and seen very clearly except for Fili, who we only “see” in this single shot.
We know from the early v-logs that the Unexpected Party scenes were the first to be filmed with the dwarf cast. We also know that Kazinsky had already filmed a few scenes as Fili before dropping out of the film. From what little we can see of his face, it’s pretty clearly not Dean O’Gorman.
It’s likely that Jackson cut around showing Kazinsky s Fili for the scene, and in this one particular shot, digitally enhanced the shadows on him to hide his face so our focus is solely on Thorin. Dean O’Gorman was cast not too long after Kazinsky left, allowing Jackson to finish the remaining scenes in Bag End featuring Fili.
Thorin sings the Misty Mountains song with Fili in the foreground on the left. Note the similarity in the shape and length of the nose to the previous photo of Rob Kazinsky above.
I found it interesting since — to date — there have been no known images (official or unofficial) released of Kazinsky as Fili.
I should point out that I only managed to spot this after watching The Hobbit blu-ray on a 1080p screen, where it is much more noticeable.
Dem here. I did a couple of things in checking through this to see if it holds water.
First, I rifled through the credits as listed on IMDB, and also examined the actual list of film credits courtesy of someone who seems to have filmed them in-cinema. Kazinsky does not seem to be listed on either. I know that folks are sometimes not credited for various reasons, but IMDB already has a list of uncredited people for AUJ and Kazinsky is not among them. And I realise that IMDB is not always a poster child for reliability, but it’s something to keep in mind.
The next thing I did was to watch the scene (you can do it too — I’ve embedded youtube video of the scene at the bottom) and count all the dwarfs. And indeed, to one extent or another, the camera does linger over each of the other dwarves. Primarily it’s Thorin, Kili, Balin and Dwalin. But all the company get camera time (Oin probably gets the least). More importantly, and in stark contrast to the shadowed Fili, they’re each in full, bright light.
Lastly, I took my own screencap. Mine, from a slightly more front-on angle shows a tiny bit more of Fili’s facial features, though i haven’t gone to the effort of brightening it. Then I started hunting round the internet for a few differentprofilephotos of Dean O’Gorman as Fili for the sake of comparison. My own opinion is that the individual half-hidden in the shadows in the AUJ doesn’t really resemble O’Gorman. I feel that the brows and the bridge of the nose, and the nose itself seem too dissimilar for it to be O’Gorman.
Fili and Thorin at Bag End. A slightly better angle. Screencap taken from the clip below.
But you might not agree; it’s certainly not absolutely conclusive! Food for thought anyhow.
First off, we’d like to continue to send our prayers and well wishes to all our friends in NZ, who once again are dealing with a significant earthquake.
While have yet to see his work in ‘The Hobbit,’ we’d like to wish a very Happy Birthday to actor Benedict Cumberbatch. The man who will be Smaug turns 37 today! Here’s his bio from Wikipedia…
Ringer RedOrmTheViking offers some intriguing analysis of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. He proposes that Rob Kazinsky, who was originally slated to play the role of Fili, actually appears on screen once during the Misty Mountains song sequence at the beginning of the film. However, because he’s mostly in shadow and because the focus, as the camera pans around the corner and into the room, is Thorin Oakenshield with his pipe, Kazinsky’s Fili is easy to overlook. 
