This month, Peter Jackson returns to Middle-Earth with Gandalf and a whole new band of dwarves, elves and archers, telling the story of young Bilbo Baggins and his encounters with Smaug the dragon and Gollum.
An Unexpected Journey, the first installment of an epic new trilogy, will allow fans to return to Middle-earth for the first time since 2004. However, Moviefone is giving the Ringers a chance to enjoy some bonus Hobbit treats (a cinematic second breakfast, if you will). Continue reading “Unscripted: ask Peter Jackson, Andy Serkis and Martin Freeman anything”
Sculptor Anneke Bester is profiled in the Christchurch Mail for the Hobbit premiere. November 29, 2012. Ringer Paul sends us this article from the November 29 edition of The Christchurch Mail about the sculpting work of Anneke Bester. Continue reading “Tireless artist sculpts staffs of legend”
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” features at least 13 dwarves, a hobbit lead and a Shire-full of supporting hobbits, three wizards, an elven queen and many more characters, and that’s just the first film in the Peter Jackson trilogy; Britain-based designer Ann Maskrey was tasked with creating costumes for them all. Maskrey is new to Middle-earth, but her previous work includes designing costumes for the “Star Wars” prequels, “Clash of the Titans” and Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Hero Complex recently spoke with Maskrey about the challenges of dressing the dwarves and designing the look for a new wizard. Read the full article on the Los Angeles Times here.
In this neat little video, Channel 7 Australia’s James Tobin chats with master swordsmith Peter Lyon about the weapons he made for The Hobbit. Some really interesting info about Orcrist, Thorin’s /other/ sword and Bolg’s massive be-spiked war-mace.
It’s not that long ago that Howard Shore’s OST for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was fully revealed for the first time as a listenable web-stream. Problem was, you couldn’t pick single tracks to listen to, and if you paused it, you had to start all over. Now, Rolling Stone offers the standard edition to listen to in its entirety with the ability to select tracks independently and the ability to pause as well.
Or if you want to trial the Special Edition, Watchtower Records has short previews from every track available on its website.
In the Rolling Stone article, Neil Finn says that “Song of the Lonely Mountain” builds on a musical theme written for the movie by New Zealand film composers Plan 9 and David Long, which a group of dwarves sing in an early scene. To work on the song, Finn put himself in the dwarves’ shoes.
“I’d get a little melody and I’d think, ‘Would a dwarf sing that?’ And you go, ‘No, it’s too floral. It’s not earthy enough,'” he says. “Even though there’s aspects of brotherhood and kinship in the song, I had a line about love and Peter and Fran [Walsh, co-writer and co-producer] sort of looked at me and said, ‘No, not love. There’s something not quite right about that.’ It’s not a love song.”
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.
This month, Peter Jackson returns to Middle-Earth with Gandalf and a whole new band of dwarves, elves and archers, telling the story of young Bilbo Baggins and his encounters with Smaug the dragon and Gollum.
