Premiere coverage, clips, and Q&As not enough for you? Well, you’re in luck. Peter Jackson has updated his Facebook page with the latest Production Diary — picking up from where the last one left off, with pick-up shoots and post production. This time around, we get a great look at Smaug’s lair (look out for a new teasing shot of the great dragon himself!) and Lake-town (including Stephen Fry’s The Master). Continue reading “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug premiere week continues with Production Diary #13!”
Category: Crew News
All news about the LOTR Crew.
Tourism New Zealand, 3 foot 7 productions, Warner Bros., and others bring you ‘The Book of New Zealand’ exhibit. This is an invitation only event being hosted out at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA. It combines set locations, images of real world New Zealand, and a little movie magic to bring to life much of what makes New Zealand the perfect location for all things ‘Middle-earth’. Here are a few images from the event and a video of the opening greeting, please enjoy.
Continue reading “Tourism New Zealand’s ‘The Book of New Zealand’ event in LA”

Interviews will play later in the week via video but we need your questions right away, in the next 12 hours.
So, in the comment section at the end of this story, its your chance to submit a question. We will take the best one for each of the actors we interview and ask!
Please specify below which of these actors your question is for, in no particular order:
Aidan Turner
Dean O’Gorman
Dan Hennah (Academy Award nominee for ‘Hobbit’ production designer)
Martin Freeman
Richard Armitage
Evangeline Lilly
Luke Evans
Benedict Cumberbatch
Watertower Music is really teasing everyone with Howard Shore’s sou8ndtrack for The Desolation of Smaug. We’ve had 30-second and 60-second samples, and recently they’ve gone and stretched it out to 90 seconds over on their SoundCloud. Continue reading “Listen to 90-second samples from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug soundtrack!”
Its always nice to hear from Weta Workshop, but its especially nice when they drop something beautiful in our mailbox. This time it is concept art work from “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles: Art & Design,” book. Written by Daniel Falconer, this is likely to be an amazing book. TORn got its first look at a similar book by Falconer for the previous movie and it turned out to be as stunning as we imagined it might be. Those who have had occasion to meet the author, who does extensive design work for Weta, know that he is gracious and smart and passionate about the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

They also included some previously released Elf concept art which you can see below. You can order the book RIGHT HERE. Expect this art to pop up in other places soon and more will be released as Weta and HarperCollins see fit, but for Hobbit fans, this may be among the very best of seasonal gifts.
Join the team from Life Flight at The Embassy on the opening weekend of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug for a special charity screening supporting Life Flight. Book here.
William Kircher (who plays Bilfur the Dwarf) and Joe Letteri ONZM (Weta Senior Visual Effects Supervisor for The Hobbit) will be attending and there’ll be an exclusive Q&A session with four-time Oscar winner Joe before the film.
Embassy Theatre, 10 Kent Terrace, Wellington
Friday 13 December 2013
Event begins 5.15pm. Film starts 6.05pm
Cost: $30 (includes 3D glasses)
Life Flight receives $9.50 from every ticket sold
The 3D film is the second in a trilogy of movies adapting the ever-popular masterpiece The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug continues the adventure of Bilbo Baggins as he journeys with the wizard Gandalf and thirteen dwarves on an epic quest to reclaim the lost dwarf kingdom of Erebor.
Click here to book your tickets today
Please contact Niall Mackay events@lifeflight.org.nz or 04 920 2237 if you have any questions.

