Six new clips have surfaced from The Hobbit all at once. These aren’t TV spots, and they’re not teasers. They’re full-on sequences of action and dialogue lasting for as much as a minute and a half. It’s so revealing that your head will spin. See as much as six minutes from The Hobbit right now. Warning: some heavy spoilers. We’re not kidding here. Continue reading “OFFICIAL: Six incredible video clips from The Hobbit”
Category: LotR Movies
In amongst all the excitement and celebration of the new Hobbit movie, tonight the very sad news has broken that Eileen Moran, an Executive Producer at Weta Digital, died in New Zealand on Monday this week. Moran worked extensively with Peter Jackson and the Weta team, including on The Lord of the Rings movies and The Hobbit movies. She missed the Hobbit premiere last week because she was in hospital. You can read more here. Everyone in the TORn community would like to extend deepest sympathies to her family, her loved ones, her friends and her colleagues.
Have you ever wondered what the Ringwraiths were up to during the rest of the Fellowship of the Ring? They’re among the most fearsome and terrifying beings on Middle-earth, yet little is known known about what goes on inside a Ringwraith’s head.
Until now. Discover why being a Nazgul is not nearly as easy as it seems…
Courtesy of RichardArmitageNet, here’s some vision from the Japanese premiere of The Hobbit — attended by Peter Jackson, Martin Freeman (Bilbo), Andy Serkis (Gollum), Richard Armitage (Thorin), Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Hugo Weaving (Elrond). Some nice interviews to pick over, too.
The premiere was held at the TOHO Cinemas Roppongi Hills and preceded by a red carpet event similar to the one held as part of the world premiere this week in Wellington. Continue reading “Video: footage from Japanese Hobbit premiere”
Fans of the Lord of the Rings film know that of the three screenwriters, Fran Walsh is the one who avoids interviews and other sorts of publicity. When I was doing my research for The Frodo Franchise, I managed to talk with Peter and Philippa, but not Fran, who sent word that she was too wrapped up in working on King Kong to think back to her previous project. Fair enough, as Bilbo says in agreeing to a certain riddling game. Still, fans of the trilogy can’t help but be intrigued by this talented lady. After all, she not only helped write the LOTR scripts, but she did some directing and came up with the idea for the famous “Gollum talks to himself” scene.
But yesterday the New York Times published a substantial piece on Ms Walsh, written by Brooks Barnes, who is obviously a lucky fellow. Last summer, he says, he “largely roamed without supervision” during a two-day visit to the Hobbit set–spotting, among other things, Ian McKellen in full Gandalf mode catching a snooze between scenes.
Even so, his eventual interview with Fran had to be done via long-distance telephone. Philippa chimed in as well, which makes sense, given how closely these two collaborate on the scripts. Very closely, in fact, since they reveal that they often work in bed together in their pajamas, surrounded by dogs! (When I interviewed Philippa, she was living next door to Fran and Peter, and I suppose she still does.) It saves the trouble of commuting the short distance to the Miramar filmmaking facilities.
A Fiordland peak could be named Mt Tolkien, after the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, if a Manapouri man’s proposal is accepted by the New Zealand Geographic Board. Aaron Nicholson has applied to name the peak, near Gunns Lake on the Milford Rd, Mt Tolkien, after J R R Tolkien. The 1757-metre unnamed peak is 1.8 kilometres from Consolation Peak, which is 1851 metres. Both lie at the northern end of the Earl Mountains. For the naming to go ahead, Mr Nicholson would have to get enough public support. “It’s got to be wanted. If I just show up saying, ‘Can we do this?’ and nobody else is interested, they’ll just pass on it.” Read more…