Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey220px-Saturn_Award is leading this years Saturn Awards with nine nominations announced overnight.  Nominees include Peter Jackson up for Best Director, Martin Freeman for Best Actor and Ian Mckellen for Best Supporting Actor.

Complete list of nominees:

Best fantasy film:
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
LIFE OF PI
RUBY SPARKS
SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN
TED

Best actor:
CHRISTIAN BALE, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
DANIEL CRAIG, SKYFALL
MARTIN FREEMAN, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
HUGH JACKMAN, LES MISERABLES
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT, LOOPER
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, KILLER JOE

Best supporting actor:
JAVIER BARDEM, SKYFALL
MICHAEL FASSBENDER, PROMETHEUS
CLARK GREGG, THE AVENGERS
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
SIR IAN MCKELLEN, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
CHRISTOPH WALTZ, DJANGO UNCHAINED

Best Director:
WILLIAM FRIEDKIN, KILLER JOE
PETER JACKSON, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
RIAN JOHNSON, LOOPER
ANG LEE, LIFE OF PI
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
JOSS WHEDON, THE AVENGERS

Best Production Design:
CLOUD ATLAS
ANNA KARENINA
LIFE OF PI
DARK SHADOWS
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
LES MISERABLES

Best Music:
LIFE OF PI
FRANKENWEENIE
ANNA KARENINA
SKYFALL
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Best Costume Design:
ANNA KARENINA
CLOUD ATLAS
DJANGO UNCHAINED
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
LES MISERABLES
SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN

Best Makeup:
CLOUD ATLAS
HITCHCOCK
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
THE IMPOSSIBLE
SKYFALL
TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN, PART 2

Best Visual Effects:
THE AVENGERS
BATTLESHIP
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
JOHN CARTER
LIFE OF PI
SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN

The Saturn Awards, is compiled by officials from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, winners will be announced at a Hollywood ceremony in June (13).

Weta Digital is nominated for Visual Effects for its work on “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” That means co-founder Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White could all be walking away from the Academy Awards ceremony this Sunday with golden statues. And the competition comes in the form of more folks at Weta Digital for work on “The Avengers,” and “Prometheus.” “The Life of Pi,” and “Snow White and The Huntsman,” are in the mix as well. Pundits say it comes down to Hobbit vs. Pi. Whatever the outcome, Weta Digital has had a pretty astounding year and with the warm glow of Smaug on the horizon, 2013 looks promising as well. You probably knew all that but what you may have missed are the terrific reels Weta Digital has available to help viewers (and maybe voters) understand what went into the creatures, environments and characters it created for the first of three Hobbit films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s 75-year-old children’s book.

One of the six showcases on YouTube, “VFX of The Hobbit: Fantastical Creatures & Lands of Epic Beauty & Darkness,” something of a highlight of all the videos, has been watched more than the rest but for anybody who loves cinema, loves the Hobbit film, technology or visual effects, the whole collection is outstanding. And so, we present them all below, embedded in one place for your viewing pleasure.

VFX OF THE HOBBIT: FANTASTICAL CREATURES & LANDS OF EPIC BEAUTY & DARKNESS



WETA DIGITAL’S ARTISTRY BEHIND GOLLUM

WETA DIGITAL’S ARTISTRY BEHIND THE GOBLIN CAVERNS

WETA DIGITAL’S ARTISTRY BEHIND RIVENDELL

WETA DIGITAL’S ARTISTRY BEHIND THE GOBLIN KING

WETA DIGITAL’S ARTISTRY BEHIND AZOG

One Ring to rule them all. Nine for the Dwarf Lords. Fifteen for the actors who were the principal cast of three Hobbit movies. Just after the world premiere of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” TheOneRing.net had a chance to talk to some of the actors playing key roles in Peter Jackson’s latest Middle-earth film trilogy at the Hobbiton Movie Set near Matamata, New Zealand. We also took extensive pictures of the amazing setting and have lots more video to share down the road, but the clip below focuses on how the actors commemorated the bond they formed while filming extensively in New Zealand. (Let us know if you want to see more videos!)

KiranHe’s a little guy with a HUGE resume: actor and stunt double Kiran Shah has starred in every one of the biggest fantasy / science-fiction films you can remember for the past 30 years! Ringer fans know him as the scale double for all 5 Hobbits (Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Bilbo) in the LOTR Trilogy, and he currently appears in THE HOBBIT: AUJ as scale double for Bilbo and also the memorable Goblin Scribe in the basket, capping off a terrific career working with Peter Jackson in Middle-earth. Kiran joins host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway for an exclusive live chat on our innovative weekly webcast TORn  TUESDAY! We talk with Kiran about his stunning list of film credits and the biggest names in Cinema Fantastique that he has worked with — James Cameron (ALIENS), Ridley Scott (LEGEND), Jim Henson (THE DARK CRYSTAL), Steven Spielberg & George Lucas (RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and STAR WARS), and he shares wonderful memories of working on the NARNIA and LOTR films in New Zealand with Richard Taylor, P.J., et al. Come join the chat on our Live Event Page here at 5:00pm today Pacific Time! You can join the Barliman’s chat room and enjoy a unique show experience with your fellow fans! Follow Kiran Shah on Twitter @LittleKiranShah and your host Clifford @Quickbeam2000. See you on today’s show!

A fake DVD cover for Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey?
A fake DVD cover for Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey?

A cover for the DVD and Blu-ray version of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” has been making the rounds on the internet. The design, as you can see, features Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins as the most prominent figure with Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield close behind. The other dwarves sneak into the image but not prominently.

It is possible this image was leaked from the studios involved but it seems unlikely and this image isn’t a powerful “buy me” image from the movie. No word from any official channels has surfaced to say this is or isn’t fake so we advise not accepting it as the gospel truth at this point.

If any excellent photoshopping readers out there want to produce some imagined blu-ray covers it would be fun to run a collection of them here, so if you have a submission send them over to Spymaster@TheOneRing.net.

Dates for the initial offering are reported as March 19 with an Extended Edition in October but nothing official has been announced. The film will still be available in some theaters at that point. Date posted by retailers like Amazon are not reliable and have included books that haven’t been written yet previously. When official dates are released, you will find them reported here.