No, no, no embellishment. They ran from the orcs for two chapters, remember? Nope, not a thing added to this.

Bud, I know I'm not as big a movie guy as you despite working in a movie theater for seven years, but just watch it at home. You've got a projector, right? That's as good as what we have. And, as much as those movies were a validation for two generations of nerds, they're not "I'm going to sit still for twelve hours" good. The Two Towers isn't even "sit still for three hours" good for me, but I understand how being into a medium can make good examples of the medium even more watchable.

So watch your jank at home, and don't watch it all the day before The Hobbit comes out. You've got a whole week in December; book club that series.

Yeah, you're probably right... But the temptation remains...

In other news, Regal has now announced which of its theaters will be carrying the movie in 48fps 3D. (Apparently Regal will not be offering HFR 2D showings--no word on if that will hold true for all chains.) Expect other theaters' listings in the next two days.

Which thanks to the Internet, is not so exclusive
 

Exclusive behind-the-scenes content available through QR code at participating Denny's

EDIT: Tumblr post got taken down but the video itself has been officially posted to Youtube.

Rolling Stone has the end credits song up for streaming!

Song of the Lonely Mountain -- Neil Finn

Arguably, digital merchandising has become the norm in recent years the same way print and physical merchandise was in 1969, and that if the estate had concerns that this new direction was overstepping the bounds of the original document, it should have been re-negotiated earlier.

I don't know all what the contract says, but they do say that gambling, online or no, is outside the rights granted. So it's less that digital merchandising is exceeding what they expected in 1969, and more that they don't want Tolkien's work on slot machines of any sort, physical or otherwise.

I think the main thing to take away from this is that Eru Iluvatar frowns upon gambling.

Production Video #9 and first video of post-production work.

Newest TV Spot



It's going to be a hot one in the old Dale toniiiiight

hey is there such a thing as a young wizard? I know in the LotR series that wizards are not humans but a different race and a long lived one. Though I also recall Gandalf was on the young side by their standards

In Tolkien's cosmology, wizards are the earthbound forms of spirits roughly analogous to angels or minor gods known as the Maiar . The wizards appeared as old men from the first time they incarnated, probably to signify their original purpose of acting as guides and advisers to the earthly races instead of open rulers. While they can technically grow old, practically it occurs so slowly that they are for all purposes immortal save for being killed by an outside force.

Since the wizards all came to Middle-Earth at the same time, any calculation of age would probably be irrelevant.

So... Stephen Colbert is pretty much set to be in the 2nd Hobbit movie... dude is so passionate about LoTR that i'm actually looking forward to see him there, even if it's not a speaking role.

...although i'm really hopping it will be.

Two thoughts on that Smaug design:

That certainly looks like something out of a GDT film, yes.
But also, I can't help but see 1998-American-Godzilla-with-Horns when I look at that face.

Again this is the book that cemented the traditional dragon into public consciousness. I want Smaug to be the most cliche' generic design possible. Because the Hobbit is why those generic images exist.

Television special with behind-the-scenes footage and cast interviews.

GOLD

Warner Bros. moves to temporarily block release of "Age of Hobbits" Asylum-knockoff

So, ignoring the arguments about copyright infringement Asylum somehow managed to mash up the literary hobbits with the scientific hobbits and throw all of that in with Komodo dragon riding cannibal ape men.

...I need to see this film. Morbid curiosity.

this is the sort of movie that deserves a web screening premier of flamming glory.

On the other hand, i wouldn't want to give money for that...

...It has Christopher Judge in it... Teal'c, how did you get roped into this?!

Also, I finally bought my tickets for the midnight showing of the Hobbit! I was worried they'd sell out but then the ticket guy told me they had only sold 28 so far... >.< (This being for the HFR version, that is.) But hey! I'm cool with not waiting in line and getting nice seats!

That's pretty cut-and-dried copyright infringement. The generic public domain term is halfling. Hobbit is clearly a creation of Tolkein.

Lot's of negative reviews floating around for The Hobbit. Whether it's actually bad or not I guess will have to wait until I see it but the content of these reviews is confusing ...

Like, a lot of the complaints are about it 'looking too good' which is just the dumbest 'back-in-my-day' mean-nothing complaint. Some guy from The Sun, I think, complained that three films is too much and was an effort to cash in on the success of LotR, which is a stupid complaint to me because clearly this is not just supposed to be the story of The Hobbit but the story of The Hobbit in the same cinematic world as Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings.

And also within the same review complaints about it being too serious for the original story but too much comic relief and shots of Freeman grimacing humorously, which... ok??? Which way would you like it???

Like, look, here's the thing - Tolkien's middle earth has a huge, complex mythology, and if Jackson has used The Hobbit to show more of that world in his cinematic universe (which is already not supposed to be identical to the original individual books) then I guess I don't really see a problem with that. These reviews sound like pedantic Tolkien purists who have forgotten that the same elements they don't like in The Hobbit were present in LotR (see: dwarf comic relief), and also that The Hobbit as a book is merely the tip of the Tolkien iceberg.

I don't know, pretty much every review I've read is Jackson has gone up his own ass showing off petty bullshit that only like a small bunch of basement dwelling tolkien nerds would possibly want to see.

Yeah like, that could be the case, but if it's all flash and no substance then these guys could be saying that. Instead they're sounding like they've got some agenda about the movie they wanted to see which is also fine I guess except it isn't really sounding like the objective movie review that they get paid for and also it sounds like they forgot what LotR and all it's extended editions looked like.

No I think its acknowledged those were shit too and these took the worst bits about them and got rid of the best bits making them even more shit.

Looking too good is a legitimate complaint: It's good to look fake, because as the realism gets upped, you can start seeing that things are just sets and costumes.

Like, it no longer looks like a movie, it looks like people standing around in costume talking.

Just saw it last night. This movie is long as hell and probably didn't need to be but it was still a lot of fun. The dwarfs were not as comically bumbling as I was expecting which was a pleasant surprise. Orcs and Goblins and Wargs are all still evil for no reason but I mean it's Tolkien, so, there you go.

My main complaint is Bilbo's seeming lack of plausible motive for joining Thorin 'n Co. but I can't remember if that's a failing of the book or not. It was fun, it hit all the good stuff from The Hobbit and had a bunch of other tolkien stuff in it with a few action scenes added to fill out the 3 hours, so, yeah, not perfect but worth seeing.

Bilbo kinda gets swept up in the whole thing, if I recall.

He sort of gets flustered by Gandalf's first visit, and invites him to tea without really thinking. Then he ends up catering the Unexpected Party because A: It's only the polite thing for a host to do, apparently, and B: he's so taken aback by it all that he doesn't really think to say "get out". Then, the next day, he oversleeps and misses a letter for a meeting with the Dwarves, and Gandalf sort of shoos him out because he's "late".

There's also a bit of hinting that Bilbo wants to go on an adventure more than he lets on. I don't know if it's in the movie, but in the book, when he first has his meeting with Gandalf and remembers the wizard's previous visits, he says "Things used to be quite excit- er... I mean, you used to upset things quite terribly around here."

That sounds like a better transition than what's in the movie, though Freeman plays it all really well.

I'm pretty sure the letter, at least is still in the movie. I remember a bit from the trailer where Bilbo's running out of Bag End with a big piece of paper, which I can only assume is that, but I suppose I'll have to see the movie myself.

He runs out waving the contract the dwarves gave him to sign that would absolve them of all liability for him getting injured/killed in exchange for 1/14th of the treasure they'd find.

I haven't read the book in a while, but his entire motivation for wanting to join in the movie basically boils down to "Well, everyone (but Gandalf for some reason) called me weak and bumbling, and I admitted I would be bad for it, and I have no real idea why it's so significant to all of them, and there's a good chance of me getting maimed or otherwise not coming back, so I guess I'll go?"

I mean, I guess Gandalf says the word Took a lot and tells a fake story about one of Bilbo's ancestors, but it really does seem like he just wakes up the day after the meeting and has a complete change of mind with no explanation given.

Yeah like, all of the time they spent on thundercat-looking orc guy? If instead that had been spent on like, Hobbit stuff and why Bilbo was a little different in Hobbit society or why Gandalf thought he was a cool dude then that would have been a lot better.

If I recall, he wakes up the day after the party, and is all "huh. Was that all some sort of weird dream? Eh. On to breakfasts.", and about an hour or so later, Gandalf is like "you didn't even dust your mantle-place this morning, did you?" and Bilbo's like "What's that got to do with anything?" and Gandalf's like "This letter is what.", and the letter's like "We're waiting for you at the inn, we expect you at [time]", and Gandalf's like "That's 10 minutes from now, better hurry!" and Bilbo's like "bu-" and Gandalf's like "nope! Shoo! You'll be late!"