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  • ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ Gets a Final Trailer

    The final installment of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy is almost here. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies will be hitting U.S. theaters on December 17. Advance ticket sales for the movie begin in just a few days.

    Three months ago Warner Bros. released a two-minute teaser trailer for The Battle of the Five Armies. Now the “official main trailer” for the movie has been released. The video shows that many fan-favorite characters from the Lord of the Rings movies will make appearances in the final Hobbit chapter.

    The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies will depict the climactic events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Titular character Bilbo Baggins, having awoken and enraged the dragon Smaug, must now join Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield’s band of dwarves to defend the Lonely Mountain. The battle for which the third movie is named will also be a part of the story, pitting men, dwarves, elves, goblins, and other Middle-Earth creatures against each other in a sequence that’s sure to rival the Battle of the Pelennor Fields as it was depicted in Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Meanwhile, a dark power familiar to Lord of the Rings fans has begun to make itself known again.

    Richard Armitage, who plays Oakenshield in the Hobbit movies, complimented Jackson and company on the trailer, saying that he is “proud” to have starred in the movies.

    The world premiere of The Battle of the Five Armies will take place on December 1 at Leicester Square in London. The premiere will be attended by much of the movie’s cast and crew. Warner Bros. has announced that the premiere festivities will be live-streamed.

  • Orlando Bloom Punches Justin Bieber

    Orlando Bloom Punches Justin Bieber

    Early Wednesday actor Orlando Bloom took a swing at teen idol Justin Bieber after the two encountered each other at Cipriani in Ibiza, Spain.

    Apparently, Bieber made a snide comment about Bloom’s estranged wife, Victoria’s Secret Angel Miranda Kerr. A shoving match ensued, and Bloom, 37, took a swing at Bieber, 20. Some witnesses say Bloom connected, some say he didn’t. Beiber then exclaimed, “what’s up bitch?”

    Back in 2012, Bieber was seen getting flirty with Kerr after a Victoria’s Secret fashion show. The incident reportedly became a factor in Kerr and Bloom’s seperation. Then in April, 2014, Bloom was spotted with Bieber’s ex Selena Gomez, 21, outside of a Chelsea Handler stand-up comedy gig in Los Angeles.

    Here is a clip recorded at the time of the alleged punching incident in Ibiza:

    Later on Bieber posted an uncaptioned image of Kerr, 31, to his Instragram account, which was promptly removed. Another Instagram user reposted the picture:

    The Twitter reaction to the punching has so far been overwhelmingly slanted in Bloom’s favor:

    Bloom will reprise his role as elven archer Legolas in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, which hits theatres on December 17. Here is a teaser trailer:

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • “Battle of the Five Armies” is This Year’s Hobbit Movie

    Fans of Peter Jackson‘s Lord of the Rings movies have been enjoying a trip back to Middle Earth through cinema for the past two years. Jackson’s latest trilogy, based on Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit, has dominated the box office during the last two Christmas movie seasons.

    This year fans were expecting a grand finale with a third movie subtitled There and Back Again – a reference to the subtitle of the original novel. Now, though, expectations for the film have been shifted slightly by a significant name change.

    Peter Jackson announced this week that the third movie in The Hobbit trilogy will be titled The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Jackson stated that the change was made because There and Back Again was the title of the final movie when only two Hobbit movies were planned. With the inclusion of last year’s The Desolation of Smaug, the third movie simply doesn’t fit the original title anymore.

    Jackson did state that There and Back Again might be used on a future The Hobbit trilogy box set release. The director is currently in the process of editing The Battle of the Five Armies as well as an extended cut of The Desolation of Smaug.

    All of this was explained in detail by Jackson through a post on his Facebook page:

    Post by Peter Jackson.

    The Battle of the Five Armies is set to release in the U.S. on December 17, 2014, when fans can expect humans, goblins, wargs, elves, dwarves, eagles, and orcs to join in a climactic battle over the Lonely Mountain’s riches. Though the titular battle encompasses only a small portion of the original novel, the movie will undoubtedly present the event with all the action-packed grandeur Jackson became known for through the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

    In the meantime, fans can ease their wait with the many well-produced The Hobbit production videos released by Warner Bros.

    Image via Facebook

  • Evangeline Lilly On Her Role In Smaug

    Evangeline Lilly On Her Role In Smaug

    Evangeline Lilly revealed to reporters, at a recent Los Angeles event, that The Hobbit was one of her favorite books as a child, and that she was thrilled when asked to play a part in the new movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

    “The sylvan elves were my favorite characters in the book and it would be a dream come true to play one. I jumped at the opportunity and picked up the phone very quickly,” Lilly recalled.

    Despite Lilly’s enthusiasm, many were upset, and concerned, that Peter Jackson, the writer/director/producer of the movie, was adding a character that wasn’t originally in the book. However, Lilly stands behind Jackson’s decision and explains why adding a female heroine adds to the film.

    “And then they said, ‘Your character is not in the book.’ And I took great pause. As a great fan of Tolkien, I gulped and went: ‘What? Everyone’s going to hate me.’ And it didn’t take long for them to completely convince me that it was the right thing to do and it was a good idea,” she said.

    “I think, in his defense, Tolkien was writing in 1937 and the world is a different place today,” she continued. “I keep repeatedly telling people, ‘In this day and age, to put nine hours of cinema in the theaters for young girls to go and watch and not have one female character is subliminally telling them you don’t count, you’re not important and you’re not pivotal to story.’ And I just think [the filmmakers] were very brave and very right in saying, ‘We won’t do that to the young female audience, who will come watch our films.’ And not just the young female audience, but even women of my own age. I think it is time that we stop making stories that are only about men, especially only about heroic men, and I love that they made Tauriel a hero.”

    What do you think about Jackson’s choice to add Lilly’s character? Leave your comments below.

    Image via Twitter

  • James Cameron Taking ‘Avatar’ Sequels to New Zealand

    Director James Cameron has confirmed that three sequels to his ‘Avatar’ blockbuster will be produced in New Zealand, beginning in 2015. New Zealand, the Polynesian country where Peter Jackson filmed his ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Hobbit’ trilogies, has agreed to a 25% rebate for the production, in a joint venture with Twentieth Century Fox and Cameron’s own Lightstorm Entertainment.

    Cameron made the announcement in the New Zealand capital of Wellington, alongside producer Jon Landau and Prime Minister John Key. Cameron declined to disclose an exact budget for the impending trilogy, but expects that the production will be kept under $1 billion. Lightstorm and Twentieth Century Fox will spend at least $413 million in New Zealand on the movies.

    “It’s quite a thrill to be officially saying that we’re bringing the Avatar films to New Zealand,” Cameron said during the press conderence. “We had such a wonderful experience here making the first film.” Prime Minister Key added, “It’s a day of great celebration. It’s a great Christmas present for those involved in making world class movies.”

    Check out some related ‘Avatar’ intrigue:

    Academy Award-winning director Cameron, also a part-time explorer of the Mariana Trench, said that he has commenced writing the scripts for the new films, and plans to shoot them in 3-D, with some of the sequences being captured in 48 frames per second.

    Cameron said he hopes to shoot all three films in tandem over a nine month period, with the aim being the release of the first sequel in time for Christmas 2016, with the following sequels coming in late 2017 and late 2018. Prime Minister Key stated that the ‘Avatar’ production will revitalize the New Zealand film industry, after it saw a decline when the ‘Hobbit’ trilogy wrapped production.

    In related ‘Hobbit’ news, TT games has recently announced LEGO The Hobbit for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PS Vita, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U, 3DS and PC.

    Here’s the trailer:

    Image via Wikimedia Commons.

  • Air New Zealand Unveils Hobbit Paint Job

    Air New Zealand Unveils Hobbit Paint Job

    “Lord of the Rings” franchise director Peter Jackson was on hand in Auckland Monday, as Air New Zealand unveiled an image on one of its planes, of the dragon Smaug, a villain from the upcoming “The Desolation of Smaug,” the second film of the Hobbit trilogy.

    The 177-foot-long decal of the dragon was installed on both sides of a Boeing 777-300 aircraft, which left for Los Angeles for a screening of “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” at the Dolby Theater. The dragon sticker was produced by Weta Digital, the New Zealand-based effects house that handled the LOTR movies.

    “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” was co-written, produced and directed by Peter Jackson, and is based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s 1937 novel The Hobbit. It is the second installment of a three-part film series, which began with “An Unexpected Journey” (2012), and will conclude with “There and Back Again” (2014). The Hobbit trilogy serves as a prequel to Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” film series.

    Here’s a cool time lapse of the ‘Smaug’ graphic being put into place:

    Andrew Aitken, a spokesman for Air New Zealand, said it intends to keep the decal on the plane for over a year, until the opening of the third Hobbit film – A decal was also used to celebrate the opening of the first Hobbit movie. All of the LOTR movies were produced in New Zealand, and that country has been able to use the franchise to market itself and boost tourism.

    Below is a sneak peak of “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” in theaters on December 13:

    Image via Twitter.

  • The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Featurette [WATCH]

    We’re about one month away from the next chapter in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit movie franchise. With that in mind, we’re sure to see the films marketing go into overdrive. Recently a featurette was released which focuses on another beastly character from Middle Earth: Beorn. I would describe it for you, but I believe Sir Ian McKellen does it better: a Beorn is, “”a man who’s sometimes a bear … or a bear who is sometimes a man.”

    The featurette really shows the amazing care and meticulous work that goes into every detail of the movie. If you’d like more information about the film, you can read the official synopsis below:

    “The second in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug continues the adventure of the title character Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) as he journeys with the Wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan) and thirteen Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) on an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor.”

    The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will release nationwide on December 13, 2013. You can checkout a trailer for the film below:

  • The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Trailer Takes Us Back To Middle Earth

    Say what you will about Peter Jackson’s decision to take a 310-page book and turn it into a three-part, almost nine-hour excursion that’s being released over the course of three holiday movie seasons, but the fact remains, his gift for visual spectacle remains strong. That much is certain after watching the two-plus minute trailer for the upcoming second installment, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Familiar faces are abound as Middle Earth’s heroes, led by Bilbo Baggins, continue their quest for Smaug’s treasure.

    The trailer gives the impression that the stakes have been raised as Jackson moves his retelling towards the climatic Battle of Five Armies, which will undoubtedly be making love to our eyes in December 2014. Until then, it looks like the battle with the dragon Smaug is taking center stage in the second installment, which promises all kinds of visual delight.

    In true 21st century marketing efforts, Warner Brothers has been using The Hobbit’s Facebook fan page to spread the word of upcoming material. To prep the masses for today’s trailer, social media managers for Warner Brothers posted five new banner posters yesterday, effectively generating the buzz of anticipation. It helps that these multimedia creations are worth your time, especially if you’re a Tolkien fan.

    Click to see the full size versions:

    Hobbit Banner

    Hobbit Banner

    Hobbit Banner

    Hobbit Banner

    Hobbit Banner


    As you can see in the banners, the second installment of The Hobbit hits the theaters on December 13. Are you going to be there, or are you waiting until it is released for the home?

    [Lead image courtesy of Warner Brothers]

  • Hobbit Nausea: Movie Might Make You Sick

    Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” has been screening in New Zealand, and fans have had an unexpected reaction: dizziness and even nausea over the film’s high rate of speed.

    Jackson chose to film the epic movie at 48 frames-per-second–double the usual amount–because of fast-paced action sequences which often become blurred when filmed at the regular rate. The faster pace means the image comes across in higher definition, which some fans enjoy and some are on the fence about; higher definition can sometimes take the cinematic look of a film and make it look like something one might watch on television. Also, the action scenes can be a little dizzying for those who aren’t used to seeing the new method on a big screen.

    “It’s a little bit different and anything that’s different visually can be nauseating,” said Alex Block of The Hollywood Reporter.

    But despite the woozy reactions of some moviegoers, Jackson insists it was the best choice for the film. Warner Brothers released a statement about the complaints recently, saying the incidents were isolated:

    “We have been screening the full-length HFR 3D presentation of THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY extensively and feedback has been extremely positive, with none of thousands who have seen the film projected in this format expressing any of the issues described by two anonymous sources in media reports. We share the filmmakers’ belief that by offering filmgoers the additional choice of HFR 3D, alongside traditional viewing formats, they have an opportunity to be part of a groundbreaking advancement in the moviegoing experience and we look forward to having audiences everywhere share in this new way of storytelling.”

  • “Hobbit: Unexpected Journey” Shortest Film In Series

    When Peter Jackson announced that he would be turning “The Hobbit” into three films, some fans of the Tolkien books groaned. Even though he’s well-known for his drawn-out storytelling style, some don’t think the tale of “The Hobbit” needs to be spread out over a trilogy, regardless of how gorgeous the effects are sure to be.

    But hardcore fans of the films are elated to finally have photos, a trailer, and an estimated running time for the first film, entitled “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”. At two hours and forty minutes, Jackson says–rather proudly–that it’s the shortest film in the entire series so far.

    Fans will also be happy to see familiar faces, especially that of Gandalf the Grey, played by Ian McKellen. McKellen wasn’t sure he wanted to appear in the trilogy at first, however, saying that it didn’t seem very challenging.

    “It was a little like going back to something that wasn’t necessarily going to be particularly challenging,” he said. “Gandalf is still inside me, as it were, so the business of getting to know a new character — I was sort of going to be robbed of that.”

    “The Hobbit: Unexpected Journey” is due out in theaters December 14th.

  • The Hobbit Gets Awesome Publicity Stills Via EW

    Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit will be unveiled in more detail at Comic-Con this month. But right now Entertainment Weekly has some great publicity stills and screenshots from the upcoming film. Here we see Gandalf, Bilbo, and dwarves Fill, Dill, Dori and Nori and others embarking on the original quest across Middle-earth.

    Some of these promotion stills feature Martin Freeman as a young Bilbo Baggins and Sir Iam McKellan as Gandalf the Grey. Richard Armitgae is shown as the leader of the dwarves, Thoren Oakenshield, who recruit Bilbo for the adventure.

    There are a couple of shots of the dwarves during their exploits. They trek through the mountains in one and another has them all inside escape barrels from a recognizable chapter in the book. There’s more of Gandalf back in Hobbiton, Bilbo in Milkwood Forest and three pictures showing the returning characters from the Lord of the Rings; Elrond (Hugo Weaving), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), and Gollum.

    So far it looks like everything is meticulously designed, just like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The character design of the dwarves alone will make this worth seeing.

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    [via: io9]

  • Panasonic Developing 145″ 8K Plasma TV

    Panasonic Japan has just announced that it’s developing a new “Super Hi-Vision” (as it’s called in that country) plasma screen that supports 8K resolution at 120 frames per second. The joint project with NHK Science and Research Laboratories will push 7680 x 4320 resolution without a backlight, the first to do so in existence.

    The detail of this new plasma screen that stuck out most to me is the mention of 120fps, a sort of increase that has been creating quite a stir as of late. Apparently, during a screening of some clips from the first of Peter Jackson’ new Hobbit movies, viewers were quite displeased with the director’s opting to shoot the entire movie at 48fps, double the traditional 24fps. The additional frames cause footage to look a bit odd in regards to the human persistence of vision – sequences look harsher in movement than standard sports video, and much of the cinematic glaze afforded by the emulsion of old is diminished. Presently available TV’s with 120Hz refresh rates hint at the unnatural quality I’m describing. It’s not ideal, and can even put off a bit of the uncanny valley. I don’t like the uncanny valley. Still, it’s not clear how the increase in frame rate will even affect the progressive signal of the new plasma.

    Panasonic and NHK have also developed a new drive method for stifling flicker that occurs at ultra-high resolutions, and the Super Hi-Vision TV is said to image maintain stability, even at 8K. Also, NHK plans to reveal it’s new 8K 120fps sensor sometime in May.

    The incorporation of of 48fps and 120fps content seems fine when one is cruising in a Jetta whilst listening to Coldplay on the way to a viewing of Avatar 2, in the acheivement of a sort of iLife trifecta of all that is slick, cold and dead – but when it comes to real things, like Middle Earth, the new concepts are… not ideal. Likewise, a new consideration for Hollywood in its war on movie piracy might involve talented encodists rendering this 48fps hocus-pocus back down to 24 in a seamless way, just to make things watchable.

  • Peter Jackson’s Hobbit Receives Lukewarm Reception at CinemaCon

    In order to help convince theater owners that upgrading their projectors to handle motion pictures lensed at 48 frames per second, Peter Jackson screened roughly 10 minutes of his upcoming epic “The Hobbit” for a select group of individuals at this year’s CinemaCon. Unfortunately for Jackson and the suits over at Warner Bros., the reception to the filmmaker’s latest bid-budget adventure was less than stellar.

    According to The Wrap, both theater owners and film bloggers were less than impressed with the footage Jackson made available during the screening, some of which was missing key special effects work. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that many individuals in attendance claimed the footage looked too crisp, too lifelike. Instead of looking like a full-bodied motion picture, a few people thought it looked more like a poorly-conceived stage play. I’m sure this isn’t the sort of feedback Jackson and his cohorts were hoping to receive from the event.

    Some of the screened 3D footage included moments with Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Gollum (Andy Serkis), and a few battle sequences involving giant trolls and the like.

    In a pre-recorded introduction — the director is currently hard at work editing all the pieces together in New Zealand — Jackson explained that upping the frame rate from 24 to 48 frames per second would make for a richer, more believable experience. He also claims that the higher rate would help with 3D, making the footage easier for movie-goers to digest.

    “The movement feels more real, it feels smoother,” Jackson explained in the segment. He also noted that the screened footage was a “work in progress.”

    The presentation, which is geared towards exhibitors, also included some early footage from Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” and Adam Shankman’s “Rock of Ages”.

    At present, there are roughly 4,000 screens in North America that have projectors capable of screening movies that were filmed at 48fps. Warner Bros. is hoping to increase that number by leaps and bounds by the time Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” arrives on December 14th, 2012.

    (image)@The_Shiznit
    Ali Gray @TheShiznit    Apparently The Hobbit’s 48 fps framerate looks a bit bum. Oh dear. http://t.co/ClZVlWFa(image) 3 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@furiouscinema
    Furious Cinema    Take your 48fps and stick it where the sun dont shine…. http://t.co/G9BcBEDl(image) 50 minutes ago via Facebook ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@CINEMOITV
    French Movie Channel    Interesting debate on the future of 24fps filmmaking and the emergence of 48/60fps technology. End of narrative cinema?
    http://t.co/pHuPSo8B(image) 3 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@carlopisani
    Carlo Pisani    #TheHobbit‘s 48fps look so real that it looks fake: the #transmedia remedy would be to read the book and dream it 24fps http://t.co/CmycYVA3(image) 2 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@cheek2chic
    Sarah Cangley    How disappointing!@flipsideza: The Hobbit footage sucks!? CinemaCon audience react negatively to sneak peek! http://t.co/hmXNy0nQ“(image) 7 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto