The countdown, how exciting!

  • Live Stream starts now… with Jed Brophy at the Post Production house
  • Peter is reading the newspaper
  • spoiler alert, it’s great weather on Monday
  • Cricket scores shared for the English fans
  • Motion capture stage visited, with Azog and another Orc, more fighting with the orcs, including orc archery
  • Dam Busters, someone should remake it so Jed can be in it.
  • James Bond walk of fame is rather cool
  • Pre-vis department, Pre-visualisation (animated sequences)
  • I see Smaug poster
  • Rather comic version of Smaug on a computer screen (psych)
  • the T-Rex with wings look a bit like Pete’s Dragon
  • Rivendell library is rather cool looking, even if never used
  • Jed loves Goldfinger
  • And then we enter the Editing room with Jabez Olssen
  • One Million years B.C was the poster over PJ’s bed as a kid
  • Now to see editing happening
  • Bard is taking the Dwarves and their barrels across the river, in a boat.
  • Bilbo – I should never come along, we have a saying in the Shire “never venture east”.
  • He seems rather miserable
  • “I should never have left Bagend. We have a saying in the Shire, we learn it from birth, Never Venture East.”
  • Peter and Jed agree that Aidan is one of the Hot Dwarves (Lisa)
  • Jed looks very waterlogged
  • We get the final cut – and it’s Bard saying “So Master Hobbit, why did you venture East?”
  • Yeah Luke, sends a little message to say hello to the fans. The One Ringer, that’s us!
  • Jed teases that Bard is out of the film but Peter says that Bard is one of the cool things about the next film
  • Here come the video questions.
  • Chris asks about problems with a middle film?
  • PJ answers – middle films are complicated, but with multiple story lines different character arcs and plot lines take over.
  • Thranduil on his throne, awesome.
  • elf troop, with Legolas and Tauriel, fighting orcs
  • Laketown and the Master looking smarmy, and his manservant looks a bit like Grima.
  • Stephen Fry says he’s taking over from Orlando as the most desirable man in the films
  • Stephen sends a video, and mentions that England is decimating NZ in Cricket
  • Chinese girls ask questions about Legolas and Orlando and why he was cast and whether or not he’s similar to his Elf
  • Orlando sends a video to ask PJ a question – he wants to know what image he is most excited to see onscreen.
  • PJ says fans are most excited to see Smaug and Bilbo together and so is he.
  • Stephen’s video has been running in the background because he’s so wordy, but he says he has no idea if he’s in the last film
  • Marina in Canada – asks about new characters
  • PJ answers – Thranduil, Bard (part of the family now), They’ve made Bard like Robin Hood, is he good or bad. And of course, Tauriel is new, a new creation. Yay for her costume, finally getting to really see it.
  • Tauriel wears a leather
  • Brazilian kids asking questions, call it LOTR and pronounce it as a word
  • The kids ask about PJ’s favorite weapons, theirs is Gimli’s and Gloin’s axe.
  • PJ loves Theoden’s sword, with the horse motifs.
  • And back to London and Stephen Fry’s video still running 😉
  • PJ was punishing Stephen about his comments about the NZ Cricket team
  • Twitter question about how difficult it is to stay on track or schedule
  • They mention the Flood in Nelson as one thing that messed up shooting
  • Surprise question with from Stephen Colbert – asks about the Sindar Elves and the Avari elves? PJ says yes about the Elves
  • So PJ rags on Stephen Colbert about two different sizes of mugs on his show, and how the quality of the printing on the mugs is poor quality
  • Twitter question – does he edit barefoot?  Yes, he can be barefoot.
  • Lee Pace, woohoo, looking rather fab, as usual. Lee is looking forward to seeing the animosity of Dwarves and Elves in his own halls.
  • Twitter question – would Jed like to inflict any dwarf torture on PJ?
  • Jed says maybe, but has to say no because he wants to continue to work with him.
  • Great story about the Dwarves on the spit, and how Mark Hadlow got sick and asked to take a break and no one heard him. Poor thing
  • Billy Boyd sends a video question – In FOTR, they went as far as the Misty Mountains, but he knows in The Hobbit they go further East. Billy wants to know about any new Wildlands.
  • PJ answers about Mirkwood, and shows artwork the darkness and foreboding nature of Mirkwood. Misty and mirky and hard to walk through, to be sure.
  • Evangeline sends a question – What will Thranduil’s realm be like?
  • PJ mentions that Green Screens is why she does not know what the realm looks like. The artwork shows a bridge over a raging river to a structure like Rivendell, but inside the forest. The realm looks like Rivendell and Lorien mixed together, but underground.
  • Dom Monaghan asks a question, he is holding the camera himself.
  • What is the best PJ rumor you’ve heard that is not true?
  • What are you happiest about in transferring book to film?
  • PJ answers about the craziest rumor – people asked him if he was going to move his family to a ship off the coast to avoid paying Taxes. He gets too seasick to do that.
  • Twitter question – will the Necromancer play a bigger part, and PJ says yes and nothing else.
  • Here comes a look at the movie, but the Trailer is not ready yet.
  • PJ says that Gandalf goes to see the tombs of the Witch-king
  • Gandalf in a cavern, showing a dark doorway that appears to be blown open from within. He then goes inside, and sees a bird flies out of broken stonework, and then sees Radagast. The Nine tombs were broken open from the inside.
  • The vlogs will be starting up again, even though this is very much like one.
  • Sequence of action from throughout the film concluding with ‘We are the Dwarves of Erebor, we have come to reclaim our homeland’
  • Ran for about 55 minutes

Remember, if you missed the Peter Jackson hosted first look at “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,”  or just want to watch it over again, a modified version will be archived on the Trilogy’s official website  www.thehobbit.com/sneak. To access the footage, use your UltraViolet code on your copy “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack or 2-Disc Special Edition DVD.

Also, be sure to stay tuned to TheOneRing.net for a detailed analysis. Coming soon!

hobbit-anunexpectedjourney04 The stars of The Hobbit have taken part in a promotional visit for Tourism New Zealand speaking about why they love the country where the J.R.R. Tolkien movies are filmed.

The short film, which appears on the DVD as an extra, features New Zealand director Peter Jackson as well as British stars Sir Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage and James Nesbitt, discussing their experiences filming on location and love of the country’s dramatic landscape.

In the six-minute video, Jackson introduces key areas where The Hobbit was filmed, including Hobbiton in Matamata, on the North Island and Twizel, an alpine village, and Central Otago, a dramatic dry landscape, both on the South Island. Continue reading “Hobbit film’s stars discuss their love of New Zealand”

reg_1024.Stewart.McKellen.mh.031913From EOnline.com: Ian McKellen, wedding officiant? A positively magnetic idea, Patrick Stewart says.

The thesp behind Magneto’s alter ego in the big-screen version of X-Men reveals that he’s been tapped to officiate at the upcoming wedding of his pal Stewart—with whom he costarred in the hit superhero flicks—to singer Sunny Ozell.

McKellen shared the news during an appearance on U.K.’s Jonathan Ross Show, and it turns out the 73-year-old has got some bona fides when it comes to overseeing weddings.

X-Men: Days of Future Past adds Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen to Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender flick

“I’m going to marry Patrick,” he said. “I am going to officiate at his wedding.”

[Read More] (Thanks to Pearl Sandybanks for the heads-up!)

From the BBC: Was the wild lunar landscape of the Irish Burren in County Clare an inspiration for Tolkien’s Middle Earth?

That is the question up for debate at the first Irish symposium for Lord of the Rings lovers to be held in May.

Fans of Bilbo Baggins, Gollum and other JRR Tolkien creations are invited to discuss how the limestone rocks of the Burren are reflected in his famous chronicles.

JRR Tolkien was a close friend of CS Lewis, author of the Narnia chronicles, who was from Belfast in Northern Ireland.

He visited the Irish west coast with his friend.

Tolkien also spent time as an external examiner with the English department at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway.

It is said that one of Tolkien’s best known characters, Gollum, may be named after Poll na gColm (pronounced Pole na Gollum – cave of the rock dove) in the Burren.

[Read More]

Fans Excited About Getting their Copy of Blu-Ray and DVDAre you like us? Bouncing with joy to receive your copy of ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ on Blu-Ray or DVD? Okay, maybe you aren’t physically bouncing, but the release here in the US has made this boring Tuesday in March a lot more exciting!

To help capture that excitement, we’ve just opened up a special Flickr gallery just for this purpose. The only rules for the gallery are that you, your family, your pet or something Middle-earth-esque is featured in the photo WITH a copy of ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ on Blu-Ray or DVD. Well, and of course keep it family friendly 😛 Follow the break to see folks who have already submitted their photos and join in – as and when the home entertainment release of An Unexpected Journey reaches your corner of the world! [Flickr Gallery] Continue reading “Share your ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ Blu-Ray and DVD Photos!”