Australians Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Barry Humphries will all attend the world premiere of the first Hobbit movie in New Zealand next week.

Warner Bros. has announced the stars who will attend the first screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, in Wellington.

Filmmakers Sir Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens will also be joined by Martin Freeman, who plays the central role of Bilbo Baggins; Richard Armitage, who stars as the dwarf warrior Thorin Oakenshield; Andy Serkis who plays Gollum and Elijah Wood who plays Frodo Baggins.

There may be a nearly 10-metre statue of Gandalf the Grey above Wellington’s Embassy Theatre, but the actor who plays the character, Sir Ian McKellen, won’t be there to see it for himself.

McKellen said he was sorry he could not attend. “I know they (the cast) will have a wonderful welcome from the fans and I envy them. As ever, my heart is in Wellington, and I send my love.”

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Tonight’s episode of “The Amazing Race” in the U.S. featured an ad announcing a special “sneak peek” of “The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey” to be featured during this week’s episode of “Survivor: Philippines.” No details on what, exactly, will be included, but based on similar ‘sneak peeks’ it’s not unreasonable to expect at least some new footage. We can only hope! Survivor airs Wednesday nights on CBS at 8:00 p.m. EST and PST, and 7:00 p.m. CST and MST.

As part of their weekly Sunday countdown of top classical music and movie scores, the U.K. station,Classic fm, will be playing exerpts from Howard Shore’s score to “The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey.”  The countdown show is playing as I type this with the #1 slot set to begin around  6:30 p.m. GMT (that’s 11:30 a.m. EST (New York) and 7:30 a.m NADT (Auckland). Follow this link to listen live on your computer: classicfm.com. Read More…

embassy theatre bag end facade
Bag End goes up at the Embassy Theatre for the premiere of The Hobbit.
WETA Worskshop writes: “Our clever friends at the 3 Foot 7 Art department have created a rather spectacular new facade for the building. Please share photos if you’ve been down at the cinema today!” We agree, if you’ve been down at the Embassy today, send us your photos and descriptions of what’s been going on!

Additionally, Ringer Selfish Narwal send us this article from the Dominion Post:

A Hobbit-themed sculpture is being unveiled on top of the Embassy Theatre today, as Middle- earth fever sweeps Wellington less than a fortnight out from the world premiere of Sir Peter Jackson’s new epic.

Workers have this morning been craning the huge installation pieces into place – including a Gandalf sculpture and what appears to be the front of a Hobbit house – since about 8am this morning.

Embassy duty manager Charlotte Weston said the installation was progressing well.

“It’s just taking a bit to get it up there.”

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