At the start of December and all through the month, we teamed up with HarperCollins for a contest to win five copies of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles: Art & Design signed by Evangeline Lilly. All the entries have now been counted and we’re ready to announce the lucky winners that will be getting one of these wonderful books shipped to their homes. The winners are: Mervi M. of Finland, Nathan K. of London, Marissa O. of Tom Rivers, NJ, Rob D. of Panama City, FL, Abbott A. of Norfolk, VA. Congratulations to all of the winners and we hope you enjoy your really cool prize! We also want to thanks our friends at HarperCollins Publishers for teaming up with us.
Category: Books Publications
Due to be released
on April 1 (no, not an April fools joke), the new book Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon comes from the same wonderful team behind the three The Hobbit: Chronicles books. This release will be 96 pages, exploring the creation of the title character of the second Hobbit film from concept art to digital realization. Final cover art is not yet available, but you can order the book on Weta’s website as well as Amazon.com and other online book stores. Continue reading “‘Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon’ now available for pre-order on Amazon.com”
J.R.R. Tolkien was born on this day, January 3rd, 1892. During his lifetime, he created a world that came to life in our imaginations, and that we’ve come to love and cherish. While many of us can recite some of his prose an poetry by heart, and are familiar with his illustrations that appear in his books, there’s a whole treasure trove of lesser know drawings and paintings by the mulit-talented man. The folks over at brainpickings.org have a nice little tribute on their site celebrating the amazing artwork of The Professor as presented in the beautifully illustrated “J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator” by Wayne G. Hammond and Christian Scull. Have a look and join TheOneRing.net in a resounding: ‘Happy Birthday Professor Tolkien!’
The same company that publishes the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, obviously including “The Hobbit,” and “The Lord of the Rings” announced an app companion to the latest Peter Jackson Middle-earth film, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” From the looks of things, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt means for this to be an immerse and interactive version of the film books. Jude Fisher provides text and many of the images are 3D and interactive. We will include a gallery of images from the app below the official press release.
The app is produced by the United Kingdom publisher of Tolkien’s work, Harper Collins UK in conjunction with Warner Bros. and developed by Ardman Digital.
Below is the full press release with images of the product:
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT ANNOUNCES THE HOBBIT: OFFICIAL VISUAL COMPANION APP
December 20, 2013
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, official U.S. publisher of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, is thrilled to announce THE HOBBIT: OFFICIAL VISUAL COMPANION APP, an app designed to accompany the film experience of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, directed by Peter Jackson. A production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opened worldwide on December 13.
The app, produced by HarperCollins UK in association with Warner Bros., was developed by Aardman Digital. The app aims to engage with book and film fans on a digital and interactive platform, and is packed with content from the The Hobbit Trilogy, including text by Jude Fisher, details and images of the characters and a beautifully rendered 3D map.
Nick Perrett, Group Director of Strategy ＆ Digital at HarperCollins said, “This is the first step toward HarperCollins’ vision for persistent storytelling worlds that will act as a hub for fans of The Hobbit worldwide. This exciting new experience brings The Hobbit universe alive and, will over time, develop as a platform for discovering the world of Middle-earth.”Sanj Kharbanda, VP of Digital Strategy at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt said, “At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, our strategy is to create great experiences across many touch points including books, ebooks, apps, and the web. We are thrilled to partner with HarperCollins UK to bring this to life for The Hobbit and celebrate the magic of Middle-earth with a new generation of readers with this app.”
Created using the Unity engine – more typically used by game developers than book publishers – THE HOBBIT: OFFICIAL VISUAL COMPANION APP is designed to enrich users’ experience of the films, enabling them to navigate a map of Middle-earth in its entirety, while discovering facts about the characters, locations and artifacts recognizable from the films and book. The app also features interactive trivia, allowing users to unlock additional app features.
THE HOBBIT: OFFICIAL VISUAL COMPANION APP will be updated with a rolling schedule of content for the next two years, including cast interviews, content for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is the official U.S. publisher of film tie-in books for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, directed by Peter Jackson.
THE HOBBIT: OFFICIAL VISUAL COMPANION APP is available from Samsung’s Apps Hub (Samsung Web, Samsung Mobile) and Apple’s App Store (Premium, Lite).
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT TRADE PUBLISHING
For nearly two centuries, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Trade division has published some of the world’s most renowned novels, non-fiction, children’s books and reference works in hardcover, trade paperback, and eBook formats. Its distinguished author list includes eight Nobel Prize winners, forty-seven Pulitzer Prize winners, thirteen National Book Award winners, and more than one hundred Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, and Sibert Medal and Honor recipients. HMH publishes such distinguished authors as Philip Roth, Temple Grandin, Tim O’Brien, and Umberto Eco, and a celebrated roster of children’s authors and illustrators including Lois Lowry, Chris Van Allsburg and David Wiesner. HMH is also home to The Best American
series®; The American Heritage® and Webster’s New World™ dictionaries; Betty Crocker®, Better Homes and Gardens®, How to Cook Everything®, The Gourmet Cookbook, and other leading culinary properties; the Peterson Field Guides®; CliffsNotes; books by J.R.R. Tolkien; and many iconic children’s books and characters including Curious George®, The Little Prince and The Polar Express. For more information, visit www.hmhco.com.
THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG
From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” the second in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. The screenplay for “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” is by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson & Guillermo del Toro, based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. Jackson also produced the film, together with Carolynne Cunningham, Zane Weiner and Fran Walsh. The executive producers are Alan Horn, Toby Emmerich, Ken Kamins and Carolyn Blackwood, with Philippa Boyens and Eileen Moran serving as co-
producers.
New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Present a WingNut Films Production, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” is a production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), with New Line managing production. Warner Bros. Pictures is handling worldwide theatrical distribution, with select international territories as well as all international television distribution being handled by MGM.
Thanks to all who entered our competition to win the complete set of new Hobbit publications from Harper Collins. We had thousands of entries – but alas, only four people could win, picked at random from all the correct answers. Congratulations to Karen in America, Asimakis in Greece, Liudmila in Russia and Teresa in America!
We have a pretty fantastic contest lined up for you the fans starting today! We’re pleased to announce that thanks to our friends at HarperCollins Publishers we will be giving away not one but FIVE copies of the amazing art book by Weta Workshop for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. This amazing art book is filled to the brim with great images of what it took to bring this movie to life. The cherry on top of the goodness that will be inside for the five lucky fans though is that Evangeline Lilly aka Tauriel has graciously signed these five copies. So not only do you get a great art book but you get one of the fine actors who worked on these movies signature. This contest will run from today through midnight PST on New Year’s Eve. Please when you fill out this form you must include your name, address, email address, and a phone number.