Further to our earlier report this week, attorney and message board member Douglas C. Kane aka Voronwë the Faithful has once again sent us a breakdown on the latest Tolkien Lawsuit.
Continue reading “Making Sense of the latest Tolkien Lawsuit”
Category: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Last night our friends at Weta Workshop sent out their latest newsletter jam packed with information on some of what you can expect to see at Comic-Con starting Wednesday night. They’re going to have tons of items from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogy on top of other licenses that Weta has. You’re also going to be able get plenty of autographs while at the booth from various artists, Richard Taylor himself, and the beautiful Evangeline Lilly. Over the next few days we here at TORn are going to show off the amazing collectibles that Weta will have for us.
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Weta Workshop Comic-Con 2013 Mega Update”
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“Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? I don’t know. Perhaps because I am afraid, and he gives me courage.”
-Gandalf to Galadriel during the meeting of the White Council
Gentle Giant since their last release has announced several Mini-Busts for their range of collectibles for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. One of those busts was of course a very familiar face to fans of Middle-earth in the character of Gandalf the Grey. Well, the wait is over and Gandalf has arrived on our doorsteps ready to be placed in our collections. Gandalf becomes the third bust in this series to go from Pre-Order to item we have, and I will say I think the wait was worth it.
Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Gentle Giant’s Gandalf the Grey Mini-Bust Review”
Ringer RedOrmTheViking offers some intriguing analysis of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. He proposes that Rob Kazinsky, who was originally slated to play the role of Fili, actually appears on screen once during the Misty Mountains song sequence at the beginning of the film. However, because he’s mostly in shadow and because the focus, as the camera pans around the corner and into the room, is Thorin Oakenshield with his pipe, Kazinsky’s Fili is easy to overlook.
RedOrmTheViking’s analysis is directly below, with my comments afterwards.
BRITISH actor Rob Kazinsky was originally cast in the role of Fili for The Hobbit films. He can be seen on the first production v-log walking around the Bag End set with other members of the cast during the “blocking” phase of pre-production.
A couple of months after the release of the first production v-log, Kazinsky dropped out of the film just as principal photography began, citing personal reasons. The role would ultimately be filled by New Zealand actor Dean O’Gorman.
Go back and watch that scene. Fili is the only dwarf in the entire company whose face you don’t see throughout the whole singing sequence. All of the other dwarves are accounted for, and seen very clearly except for Fili, who we only “see” in this single shot.
We know from the early v-logs that the Unexpected Party scenes were the first to be filmed with the dwarf cast. We also know that Kazinsky had already filmed a few scenes as Fili before dropping out of the film. From what little we can see of his face, it’s pretty clearly not Dean O’Gorman.
It’s likely that Jackson cut around showing Kazinsky s Fili for the scene, and in this one particular shot, digitally enhanced the shadows on him to hide his face so our focus is solely on Thorin. Dean O’Gorman was cast not too long after Kazinsky left, allowing Jackson to finish the remaining scenes in Bag End featuring Fili.
I found it interesting since — to date — there have been no known images (official or unofficial) released of Kazinsky as Fili.
I should point out that I only managed to spot this after watching The Hobbit blu-ray on a 1080p screen, where it is much more noticeable.
Dem here. I did a couple of things in checking through this to see if it holds water.
First, I rifled through the credits as listed on IMDB, and also examined the actual list of film credits courtesy of someone who seems to have filmed them in-cinema. Kazinsky does not seem to be listed on either. I know that folks are sometimes not credited for various reasons, but IMDB already has a list of uncredited people for AUJ and Kazinsky is not among them. And I realise that IMDB is not always a poster child for reliability, but it’s something to keep in mind.
The next thing I did was to watch the scene (you can do it too — I’ve embedded youtube video of the scene at the bottom) and count all the dwarfs. And indeed, to one extent or another, the camera does linger over each of the other dwarves. Primarily it’s Thorin, Kili, Balin and Dwalin. But all the company get camera time (Oin probably gets the least). More importantly, and in stark contrast to the shadowed Fili, they’re each in full, bright light.
Lastly, I took my own screencap. Mine, from a slightly more front-on angle shows a tiny bit more of Fili’s facial features, though i haven’t gone to the effort of brightening it. Then I started hunting round the internet for a few different profile photos of Dean O’Gorman as Fili for the sake of comparison. My own opinion is that the individual half-hidden in the shadows in the AUJ doesn’t really resemble O’Gorman. I feel that the brows and the bridge of the nose, and the nose itself seem too dissimilar for it to be O’Gorman.
But you might not agree; it’s certainly not absolutely conclusive! Food for thought anyhow.
As we get ready to go into Comic-Con we wanted to remind you all of a contest we’re doing with our friends at BUDK/United Cutlery. We’ve teamed up with them to give away one of their awesome Orcrist Replicas that you see Thorin use during The Hobbit: An Unexpeted Journey. There are only 17 days left in the contest and with all the excitement of what you’re going to see at Comic-Con we wanted to make sure you got your entries in before the end of the contest sneaks up on you.
Orcrist Sword Contest: Entry Form
If you have followed all the off-screen drama related to the film adaptation of “The Hobbit,” you know that teams of lawyers have been central to the nearly unbelievable plot. There is a history of legal maneuvering that stretches back around Middle-earth movies for decades.
In the current round of court battles the Tolkien Estate brought a lawsuit in Nov. 2012 against Warner Bros. for $80 million that centered on online slot machines and digital merchandise. By March, WB and the Middle-earth Enterprises (that owns the rights purchased from J.R.R. Tolkien and grants them to Warner Bros.) filed a counter-claim saying the lawsuit had damaged them and undermined rights to the property.
The Estate, and an entity called The Fourth Age Ltd. filed to dismiss the counter suit, saying it was simply a legal move to get rid of the original suit. The victory for Warners and Middle-earth Enterprises was judge Audrey Collins stamping a “denied” against the motion to dismiss, allowing the suit to go forward. As you might guess, it is far from settled and many lawyers will collect significant money yet hashing it all out. Most of our information comes from Deadline.com where you can read more details if you wish, including the six-page decision. Kudos to Deadline for its reporting but their decision to watermark this public document is a tad silly.
Deadline’s latest story can be found here. There are others, including by bizjournals.com, while Deadline’s story about the original suit can be read here.
The judge concludes with some clear language:
“For the foregoing reasons, Fourth Age’s Motions to Dismiss Amended Counterclaims and Special Motions to Strike Amended Counterclaims (docket nos. 40, 41, 42, and 43) are DENIED
.
IT IS SO ORDERED.“