Richard Armitage listens to a question during a press conference before the World Premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in Wellington, New Zealand.
Only hours before the stars walked the red carpet in front of 100,000 fans on the street of Wellington, nearly the entire cast gathered at Te Papa Museum for a pair of press conferences.
Peter Jackson and stars Richard Armitage and Martin Freeman attended both press events while most of the rest of the principal cast and screenwriter Philippa Boyens attended one event or the other.
Media was invited by Warner Bros., the studio that was handling press from around the world during the week. TheOneRing.net was included in the press invite, not the only online fan site to get the call, as our friends from herr-der-ringe were also there. MGM and New Line were also announced as presenting the press conferences.
John Callen sits with his “Team Oin” jacket on during the press conference at Te Papa Museum in Wellington, New Zealand. Each actor choose a unique approach to wardrobe, just as in the movie, showing their personality when there was little dialog to go around.
Te Papa, a world-class museum, arranged a long table for the events and switched name cards in front of native Maori art. Called a Marae, translated as “big house” but serving as the symbolic center of Maori tradition, the event started with singing and then a forehead-to-forehead welcome to the participants. With the unique and beautiful colors behind, each of the question and answer sessions lasted about 40 minutes and was moderated.
Flash photography was not allowed, although clearly TheOneRing took quite a few stills. In the back of the room rows of cameras shot video, including for TORn. We audio recorded the event as well and hope to present a transcript of it in a day or two. Meanwhile enjoy some of the best handful of photos. The participants included: Cate Blanchette, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Mark Hadlow, Stephen Hunter, Peter Hambleton William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Graham McTavish, Andy Serkis and Elijah Wood.
Richard Armitage listens to a question during a press conference before the World Premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in Wellington, New Zealand.
Jed Brophy and William Kircher, fresh from playing Red Carpet Tours and TheOneRing.net’s combined party two nights before, speak earnestly about their experiences acting on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
Philippa Boyens (l to r) Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage and Dean O’Gormann react to a question from the media. The reporter asked Freeman if he could eat dinner with anybody, living or dead, who it would be. Martin seemed a little stunted by the question.
Martin Freeman, who plays the leading role in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, tries on his Hobbit Halo next to Peter Jackson.
John Callen sits with his “Team Oin” jacket on during the press conference at Te Papa Museum in Wellington, New Zealand. Each actor choose a unique approach to wardrobe, just as in the movie, showing their personality when there was little dialog to go around.
On Monday 3rd December, TORn staffer greendragon (‘tis I!) was lucky enough to have a sit down with The Hobbit’s Thorin Oakenshield, actor Richard Armitage. A fascinating, erudite and humble man, he spilled the beans on his thoughts on bringing Thorin to life, shed some light on Peter Jackson as a true actors’ director and not just a technical wizard, and even dropped some hints about dwarf women and what lies in store for Thorin!
Let me start by answering the question which I know will be on the minds of many readers… Yes, he really is that handsome. Yes, he really is that charming; he has the ability to make you feel, as he talks to you, that you are the only person who matters. This skill in focusing and being ‘in the moment’ is an important part of the intensity he brings to his acting; and it gives him that reputation for making interviewers go weak at the knees. (I’m pleased to report that my knees were reliable throughout the interview!) And yes, he really was wearing black, leather trousers – Guy of Gisborne lives on!
Entertainment Weekly revealed one of four ‘collector’s edition covers’ of their upcoming December 14 issue today. The cover features a prominent picture of Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins), and also has a little teaser about a first look at the next film. No details yet on how extensive the ‘first look’ will be. The edition hits news stands on Friday, December 7th, so we don’t have to wait long to find out! Read more…
TV spot no. 10 has now officially been made available on Warner Bros. facebook page. For those of you (like me) who may have lost track of which spot number 10 is, exactly, it has a bit of new footage of the Riddles in the Dark scene between Bilbo and Gollum in the middle, and new footage of Galadriel and Gandalf towards the end. The total length of this spot is 34 seconds. Enjoy!
Do you live in Canada and simply can’t wait until December 14th to see ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey?’ TheOneRing.net is privileged to team up with Warner Bros. Pictures Canada to giveaway 9 pair of tickets to screenings across Canadian taking place on Dec 12th! The screenings will take place in the following cities, and we have two tickets for each: Toronto, Montreal (English), Montreal (French), Vancouver, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax. All screenings will start at 6pm on Dec 12th except for the Montreal (French) screening which will begin at 7pm. How do you enter? Just fill out the form below and make sure to choose which screening you want to see. We will be choosing our winners on Dec 6th – yes, that is tomorrow!! Tickets will be mailed to you before the event. Good luck to all you Canadian Ringers out there! And of course, if you aren’t one of the lucky winners, don’t miss ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ in theaters December 14th! Visit the official website, The Hobbit facebook page, and Twitter: follow @wbpictures!
Join our *live* webcast today as host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway heads off to Burbank, where we will find the lovely Warner Bros. studio lot, on a special night where the show goes on the move across Hollywood! Quickbeam is headed to see tonight’s press screening of THE HOBBIT: AUJ, so he can write his official TORn review of the film! Experience our live chat show like never before (resembling the infamous TORn AFTER DARK series made famous at Dragon*Con), and join chatters live in Barliman’s Chat Room, built into our Live Event Page here. The show begins at 5pm Pacific Time! You can also turn on your camera and join video chat here at www.stickam.com/theoneringnet
