Rather comic version of Smaug on a computer screen (psych)
the T-Rex with wings look a bit like Pete’s Dragon
Rivendell library is rather cool looking, even if never used
Jed loves Goldfinger
And then we enter the Editing room with Jabez Olssen
One Million years B.C was the poster over PJ’s bed as a kid
Now to see editing happening
Bard is taking the Dwarves and their barrels across the river, in a boat.
Bilbo – I should never come along, we have a saying in the Shire “never venture east”.
He seems rather miserable
“I should never have left Bagend. We have a saying in the Shire, we learn it from birth, Never Venture East.”
Peter and Jed agree that Aidan is one of the Hot Dwarves (Lisa)
Jed looks very waterlogged
We get the final cut – and it’s Bard saying “So Master Hobbit, why did you venture East?”
Yeah Luke, sends a little message to say hello to the fans. The One Ringer, that’s us!
Jed teases that Bard is out of the film but Peter says that Bard is one of the cool things about the next film
Here come the video questions.
Chris asks about problems with a middle film?
PJ answers – middle films are complicated, but with multiple story lines different character arcs and plot lines take over.
Thranduil on his throne, awesome.
elf troop, with Legolas and Tauriel, fighting orcs
Laketown and the Master looking smarmy, and his manservant looks a bit like Grima.
Stephen Fry says he’s taking over from Orlando as the most desirable man in the films
Stephen sends a video, and mentions that England is decimating NZ in Cricket
Chinese girls ask questions about Legolas and Orlando and why he was cast and whether or not he’s similar to his Elf
Orlando sends a video to ask PJ a question – he wants to know what image he is most excited to see onscreen.
PJ says fans are most excited to see Smaug and Bilbo together and so is he.
Stephen’s video has been running in the background because he’s so wordy, but he says he has no idea if he’s in the last film
Marina in Canada – asks about new characters
PJ answers – Thranduil, Bard (part of the family now), They’ve made Bard like Robin Hood, is he good or bad. And of course, Tauriel is new, a new creation. Yay for her costume, finally getting to really see it.
Tauriel wears a leather
Brazilian kids asking questions, call it LOTR and pronounce it as a word
The kids ask about PJ’s favorite weapons, theirs is Gimli’s and Gloin’s axe.
PJ loves Theoden’s sword, with the horse motifs.
And back to London and Stephen Fry’s video still running 😉
PJ was punishing Stephen about his comments about the NZ Cricket team
Twitter question about how difficult it is to stay on track or schedule
They mention the Flood in Nelson as one thing that messed up shooting
Surprise question with from Stephen Colbert – asks about the Sindar Elves and the Avari elves? PJ says yes about the Elves
So PJ rags on Stephen Colbert about two different sizes of mugs on his show, and how the quality of the printing on the mugs is poor quality
Twitter question – does he edit barefoot? Yes, he can be barefoot.
Lee Pace, woohoo, looking rather fab, as usual. Lee is looking forward to seeing the animosity of Dwarves and Elves in his own halls.
Twitter question – would Jed like to inflict any dwarf torture on PJ?
Jed says maybe, but has to say no because he wants to continue to work with him.
Great story about the Dwarves on the spit, and how Mark Hadlow got sick and asked to take a break and no one heard him. Poor thing
Billy Boyd sends a video question – In FOTR, they went as far as the Misty Mountains, but he knows in The Hobbit they go further East. Billy wants to know about any new Wildlands.
PJ answers about Mirkwood, and shows artwork the darkness and foreboding nature of Mirkwood. Misty and mirky and hard to walk through, to be sure.
Evangeline sends a question – What will Thranduil’s realm be like?
PJ mentions that Green Screens is why she does not know what the realm looks like. The artwork shows a bridge over a raging river to a structure like Rivendell, but inside the forest. The realm looks like Rivendell and Lorien mixed together, but underground.
Dom Monaghan asks a question, he is holding the camera himself.
What is the best PJ rumor you’ve heard that is not true?
What are you happiest about in transferring book to film?
PJ answers about the craziest rumor – people asked him if he was going to move his family to a ship off the coast to avoid paying Taxes. He gets too seasick to do that.
Twitter question – will the Necromancer play a bigger part, and PJ says yes and nothing else.
Here comes a look at the movie, but the Trailer is not ready yet.
PJ says that Gandalf goes to see the tombs of the Witch-king
Gandalf in a cavern, showing a dark doorway that appears to be blown open from within. He then goes inside, and sees a bird flies out of broken stonework, and then sees Radagast. The Nine tombs were broken open from the inside.
The vlogs will be starting up again, even though this is very much like one.
Sequence of action from throughout the film concluding with ‘We are the Dwarves of Erebor, we have come to reclaim our homeland’
Ran for about 55 minutes
Remember, if you missed the Peter Jackson hosted first look at “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” or just want to watch it over again, a modified version will be archived on the Trilogy’s official website www.thehobbit.com/sneak. To access the footage, use your UltraViolet code on your copy “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack or 2-Disc Special Edition DVD.
Also, be sure to stay tuned to TheOneRing.net for a detailed analysis. Coming soon!
We all know that Legolas Greenleaf is pretty speedy with that Lothlorien bow of his. But that’s in Movieland. Surely it’s impossible to replicate in real life.
Danish archer Lars Andersen believes he’s rediscovered ancient techniques that allow him to shoot as fast — or faster than — Legolas does in the movie of The Lord of the Rings.
The trick? He holds not just the one arrow in his hand, but every single arrow he intends to shoot — so each arrow is ready to be fired immediately. There’s a good view of it at around 3 min 15 secs in the video below, and some interesting and insightful discussion of the technique in this old post over on Reddit. Continue reading “A real-life archer faster than Legolas?”
Middle-earth March Madness moves to the round of 32 with a bit of controversy and surprise. With some victories settled by a single vote (Beorn vs. Faramir) and others knocking out favorites, the competition is really heating up!
Here are some Round 2 Highlights…
The Shire Division
(8) Huan had a major push against his first round opponent, but can he keep up the momentum against fan favorite and number one seeded (1) Galadriel? Can the most powerful of the Ainur (4) Morgoth take out the eldest ent (5) Treebeard? The story of (6) Luthien, considered by many to be one of the greatest told in Middle-earth, is profound and impactful, but can she overcome the recent Billion dollar box-office success of (3) Bilbo Baggins? And finally, can the elvenking of Mirkwood (7) Thranduil take out the head of the White Council (2) Saruman?
The Erebor Division
There are some very interesting match-ups in Erebor this round. Cinderella seed (16) Pippin takes on recent dwarven heart-throb (9) Fili. Last year’s champ (12) Sam is up against (4) Beren in what will most likely come down to a battle of familiarity with the stories of Middle-earth. (6) Elrond faces off against (14) Eowyn, one who continues to long to win renown in battle. Can she make this her next big victory!? And finally in a battle man vs. beast, (7) Aragorn faces off against the windlord (2) Gwaihir.
The Mordor Division
The Mordor division has some very powerful characters with some very intriguing competitions. (9) Gil-galad, the high kind of Noldor, has his hands full with the number one seed (1) Smaug. The Dark Lord (4) Sauron faces off against a worthy dwarven opponent (5) Dain Ironfoot. (11) Fingolfin could take on the likes of Morgoth, but can he handle the stout and stubborn (3) Thorin Oakenshield? Hot of this shape-shifter’s victory by a single vote, can (2) Beorn continue past her magnificence (7) Shelob?
The Angmar Division
The Angmare division looks like it has the most interesting match-up of Round 2. In a rematch of sorts, (1) The One Ring goes up against (8) Frodo Baggins. It can be said that The One Ring won out last time, but will Frodo accomplish the task this time?? The Eldar King (12) Manwe, an Ainur, faces off against a simple man, (4) Bard. Can Bard overccome insurmountable odds to win this match? Will the quickness and general sneakiness of (3) Gollum lead him past imposing dwarf (6) Dwalin? And last but not least, will (10) Merry finally get back at (2) Gandalf for making him wash all those dishes!
Voting starts right now and will run until March 25th at 10pm ET.
Round 1 of Middle-earth March Madness lived up to the hype as some match-ups came down to a flurry of last minute voting, and one match-up being decided by a single vote! With nearly 12,000 votes cast, round 1 will go down as one for the record books!
In The Shire division, the battle between (8) Huan and (9) Quickbeam ended up not being as close as expected, with Huan sounding beating the hasty ent. The rest of the match-ups were pretty much across the board victories for the top seeded combatants.
In Mordor, two match-ups came down to the smallest margins. (7) Shelob squeaked by (10) “Bullroarer” Took by 32 votes, but the match-up between (2) Beorn and (15) Faramir was even more epic. That’s right, Beorn out-matched Faramir by a single vote in the closest shave of the tournament so far.
In the Erebor division, (16) Pippin may be putting on the ‘Cinderella’ moniker as he out wits the division number one seed (1) Balin. In the much hyped, and highly contested battle of dwarven brothers, (9) Fili skated by (8) Kili in easier fashion than one may have expected. And in a surprisingly close match-up, number four seed (4) Beren made a last minute push to beat out (13) Boromir.
The Angmar division did not feature any close match-ups in this round, but we did have an upset or two as (10) Merry got by the division namesake (7) The Witch-king of Angmar, and (12) Manwe got by (5) Glaurung.
Voting for Round 2 will begin tomorrow and run until 10pm on March 25th.
While you wait, download the latest bracket – [Round 2 Bracket]
From the BBC: Was the wild lunar landscape of the Irish Burren in County Clare an inspiration for Tolkien’s Middle Earth?
That is the question up for debate at the first Irish symposium for Lord of the Rings lovers to be held in May.
Fans of Bilbo Baggins, Gollum and other JRR Tolkien creations are invited to discuss how the limestone rocks of the Burren are reflected in his famous chronicles.
JRR Tolkien was a close friend of CS Lewis, author of the Narnia chronicles, who was from Belfast in Northern Ireland.
He visited the Irish west coast with his friend.
Tolkien also spent time as an external examiner with the English department at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway.
It is said that one of Tolkien’s best known characters, Gollum, may be named after Poll na gColm (pronounced Pole na Gollum – cave of the rock dove) in the Burren.