From Taranaki Daily News: Three Foot Seven Productions publicist Melissa Booth said there was no way Mt Taranaki would be used as the Lonely Mountain.

“We don’t need a mountain,” Ms Booth said.

“Mt Doom (in the Lord Of The Rings) is a completely artist-created fictional painting,” she said. “It’s already established so it can’t be changed.” She confirmed that location scouts had scoured the country looking at landscapes, including Taranaki. “It’s really just looking at this point. “They do a lot of primary research which then gets whittled down to the landscapes were looking at using. “We’re still working out what, if any, mountains will be used.” Shooting for The Hobbit begins on March 21.

Bernie writes: Yesterday I attended the Sydney Armageddon Expo for 2011, in which John Rhys-Davies attended. At 11.30, he conducted a panel where he mentioned ‘The Hobbit’.

He said that he would love to return because he had such a brilliant time with ‘The Lord of the Rings’, but would be unable to, due to the toll that his prosthetic. Nothing new. To quote him, “I was asked to return as one of the 13 dwarves, and I thought, why would I want to be one of 13 when I could be one of one?” Continue reading “John Rhys-Davies Talks The Hobbit”

You may have noticed in last night’s Oscar broadcast that the actor who will play Beorn in the upcoming ‘The Hobbit’ films, was the lead actor in ‘In a Better World,’ the film which one The Best Foreign Language Award. In the film, Mikael Persbrandt (who plays Anton) is a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark, and his work in a Sudanese refugee camp. Congrats to Mikael and the entire team involved with the film!

frodowen writes: I’m backpacking in NZ right now and recently did the Hobbiton set tour in Matamata. I saw a while back that you reported they were closed, but since the filmed was pushed back due to PJ being in hospital it’s been reopened. Well, because they should have been filming right now, the set is PERFECT. All the hobbit holes are complete, there is fruit on the trees and flowers in the gardens – it is like being in the Shire. They even have the (fake) tree above Bag End, and have expanded the set to include more hobbit holes than they used in LOTR. I can’t post pictures of course due to confidentiality contracts we had to sign, but I thought you might like to let other fans in the area know that now is would be a really great time to visit. It’s well worth the tour fee to see the set as it is now.