TORn Message Board Member DanielLB has discovered a blogger (DarkJackal) who has a very high resolution of Bilbo reading his contract from the Dwarves. DarkJackal’s effort to decipher the words on that contract is truly amazing, and she invites others to help fill in the missing pieces. Have a look at this treasure and join in on the discussion!
Saturday night via email Gentle Giant announced the first bust from The Hobbit if you sign up for their 2012 Premier Guild Memberships next week. The first character to be made into bust form will be the Dwarf Dwalin who joined Bilbo on the journey to the Lonely Mountain. The PGM program from Gentle Giant runs $60 and has many great things about it that allow collectors to get first cracks at must have items. So stay tuned to next week to get your PGM membership and a chance to add a Dwalin bust to your collection.
If you’re like me, you feel geeky excitement every time a new Hobbit filming location is announced or leaked. If the studios haven’t announced what’s being filmed there, it’s great fun to try to guess. If it’s already known what’s being filmed at a certain location (Hobbiton in Matamata is a pretty obvious example), it’s still fun to envision how scenes from “The Hobbit” will look there and/or try to spot new details in the locations and sets that weren’t there for the Lord of the Rings movies. Message board member ceppault has now made it ultra-easy for all of us to track the filming locations and visit them virtually with him via his Hobbit Production Locations version of Google maps. ceppault has also included quotes about the locations from articles and/or spy reports that add interesting details to the ‘pins’ on the map.
Thanks go to ceppault for sharing with us and allowing us to share it with you. If you’d like to help add to the locations, give ceppault your feed back it the active thread on our Hobbit Movie discussion board.
The release and news arrived yesterday that Billy Connolly will play Dain II Ironfoot in the two forthcoming Hobbit movies, directed by Peter Jackson, and with that, all the pieces of the films are in place.
Here in the underground labyrinth that serves as TORn’s offices (with doors leading to L.A., Atlanta, Kenosha and Wellington among other places) a big sigh of relief could audibly heard. Dain II Ironfoot will be included; a talented actor, somebody who already looks like a Middle-earth dwarf, and is a skilled performer will be handling the role. Awesome.
We have full confidence in Connolly — who is best known for his comedy — in what might be inspired casting. His credibility comes from small, dramatic roles (The Last Samurai) which he handles just fine but more from independent films, playing larger parts and lead roles, giving him a lot of experience in front of the camera. General audiences may only think of comedy (and there may be plenty of that in The Hobbit anyway) but they should recognize his considerable talent.
Much more central the sigh of relief was the clarity that the Dain character is in. The complete absence of this important dwarven hero from news or casting announcement was a genuine concern among those trying to piece everything together. It was a glaring omission. Continue reading “Why Dain and Connolly is good news for ‘Hobbit’ fans”
Check out these two video clips from local coverage of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit casting Billy Connolly as Dain Ironfoot, cousin of Thorin Oakenshield. His character is set to appear in both movies and this casting announcement completes the official cast. [Complete Cast] [Hobbit Section]