Congratulations to our beautiful Elven Queen, Cate Blanchett for winning the Golden Globe for Best Drama Actress in the Woody Allen film Blue Jasmine.
Continue reading “Cate Blanchett wins Golden Globe for Best Drama Actress”
Category: Hobbit Movie
This past Thursday night, the Visual Effects branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences met to vote for the five VFX nominees at this year’s Oscars. As expected, voters were highly impressed by the frontrunners Gravity and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. But the fellow potential nominees were no slouches either. Presentations of the special effects work behind Pacific Rim, World War Z, and others left quite an impression as well. Continue reading “‘Smaug’ Visual Effects wow at Academy Awards bake-off”
Continue reading “Peter of many colours? Jackson finally leaves the path of wisdom”
Although officially all shooting for Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies wrapped at the end of pickups last year, the cast have always said that they expect to head back sometime this year. In his interview with TheOneRing.net last November, Richard Armitage said, ‘We have nothing official at the moment; but knowing Pete, knowing what that third movie needs to be like, you know, his taste and what he’s aiming for, I have no doubt in my mind that we’ll be going back to do more stuff … On the last day of the shoot, he [PJ] put his arms around me, and he gave me a big hug and said, ‘See you next year.’ And I was like, ‘What, do you mean for the Premiere?’ and he went, ‘No, no; we’ll be back here again…’ ‘
Now there is the first hint of a confirmation that there will indeed be further pickups to complete the third movie, The Hobbit: There and Back Again. The business section of newspaper Irish Examiner contains this article about actor James Nesbitt’s entertainment firm Brown Cow Films Ltd; at the very end of the article is the line, ‘Nesbitt confirmed that he is returning to New Zealand in around May for the filming of the third Hobbit movie.’
There and Back Again indeed! It looks like New Zealand may be becoming Middle-earth, and the fellowship of companions may be gathering, for one last journey in a few months’ time. And that is an encouraging thought.
Another group has released their nominations, and Dan Hennah has received a nod in the Art Directors Guild’s “Fantasy Film” category. Fellow nominees include Elysium, Gravity, Oblivion, and Star Trek Into Darkness.
The ADG’s ceremony will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 8. Continue reading “‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ receives nomination from the Art Directors Guild”
The latest writing from TORn’s friend and regular Tolkien blogger Michael Martinez’s considers the content of Peter Jackson’s not one, not two but three Hobbit movies. The criticism often made is that Jackson has ‘padded’ Tolkien’s brief story, to create enough content for three films; but what of the content from the book which has in fact been lost? And how many of Jackson’s additions could be seen as necessary exposition, required to clarify and render cohesive several somewhat ‘glossed over’ plot points from The Hobbit (upon which Tolkien himself expanded, in the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, for example)? Is any of Jackson’s content actually gratuitous padding, simply there to spin out a short tale? You can read Martinez’s take on all this in his interesting blog, here.