(The outdoor Lake-Town wet set with extras and crew assembled for a night shoot on “The Hobbit.”)
WELLINGTON — The great cities of history have risen up around rivers, lakes and on coasts. Water holds vast and replenishing stores of food, improves transportation of people and goods, encourages trade, and of course keeps a population hydrated. Paris. London. Hong Kong. New York. Tokyo. Moscow. Boston. On and on.
Lake-town benefitted from excellent transportation and presumably a wealth of fish and food and clean, fresh water but it was built on water for a different reason.
Dragons.
One dragon in particular: Smaug The Terrible.
Tolkien’s Lake-town, like real-world Venice, was built on wooden pillars sunk into water. The lake men — with the destruction of Dale seared forever into their memory — built on water for safety. We watched it in the prolog of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” while they had to live with the fear of dragon every day. Water-based living provided at least a chance against the great and terrible worm if he ever attacked again.
Thank you to Ringer Sander who has once again sent us in some new images from the Official Desolation of Smaug Calendar.
*SPOILER ALERT* the images include a new image of Beorn, the Master of Laketown and a couple of Bain son of Bard, so if you’re avoiding spoilers, don’t read on 🙂
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition from Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson is available NOW on iTunes in the US with the rest of the world rolling out starting today.
Our good friends at WBShop.com have posted a Dragon’s hoard of new goodies. Check out the Official Merchandise for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug at HobbitShop.com. Included in the update: 75 shirts from the upcoming film, phone cases, figures and more. And of course, DVDs & Blu-ray discs, accessories, jewelry, and collectibles from both The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey! [HobbitShop.com]
Long-time friend of TheOneRing.net, Sohaib Awan, has kicked off a new Fictional Frontiers podcast and invited our own MrCere to talk all things Hobbit. Long a radio program, Fictional Frontiers, with Shotglass Digital, is reaching a new audience with a new format that allows for a longer, more in-depth discussion. Awan has championed “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” and loves both the realms of Tolkien and the work of Peter Jackson. He has used MrCere (Larry D. Curtis) as a frequent guest and in this episode they discuss both the upcoming second installment of the film and the success of the first and Curtis talks big picture about his time in New Zealand. The podcast can be found right here! Awan says MrCere will return in future episodes to talk more Hobbit.
Ringer Mr Spielbrick lets us know that we can now check out high-resolution artwork for the four movie tie-in LEGO sets for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug courtesy of user “HothBricks” over on Flickr. (Low-res versions have been floating round the internet for a couple of days but weren’t much more than a pixelated blur). Continue reading “See new, high-res artwork for The Desolation of Smaug LEGO sets!”
Dragons.
Thank you to Ringer Sander who has once again sent us in some new images from the Official Desolation of Smaug Calendar.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition from Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson is available NOW on iTunes in the US with the rest of the world rolling out starting today. 
