Beorn the Shapeshifter: Sneak Peek at ‘Desolation of Smaug’ Blu-ray/DVD bonus features

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The remote server returned an unexpected response: (417) Expectation failed.
April 3, 2014 at 11:49 pm by Aragorn the Elfstone  - 

In addition to the featurette posted earlier – showing Orlando Bloom practicing a Laketown fight scene – Warner Brothers UK has posted another sneak peek at the upcoming Blu-ray and DVD releases of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

This clip examines the design of Beorn, with interviews from actor Mikael Persbrandt and Hair/Make-up Designer Peter King.

The Blu-ray/DVD of The Desolation of Smaug will be released this coming Tuesday, April 8.
Posted in Blu-Ray, DVDs, Headlines, Hobbit Movie, J.R.R. Tolkien, MGM, Mikael Persbrandt, Miscellaneous, New Line Cinema, Production, The Hobbit, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Warner Bros. on April 3, 2014 by Aragorn the Elfstone Source: YouTube

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Released

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The remote server returned an unexpected response: (417) Expectation failed.

Today is the official release date of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. To mark the day, yet a new poster. Feel free to post what you thought of the movie in the comments.

The Hobbit Concept Art

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The remote server returned an unexpected response: (417) Expectation failed.
Andrew Baker, one of the concept artists for The Hobbit trilogy, has posted some of his creature concepts on his blog. These include a look at Smaug, Bolg, Beorn and more. Click here to view them all.

Media Review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

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The remote server returned an unexpected response: (417) Expectation failed.
The reviews are already in for most of main media for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Over all most seem to enjoy the movie, grading it around a B+ saying it moves at a much more exciting pace compared to An Unexpected Journey. Another common note is the action scenes are very well done and exciting but frequently compared to video games. As for the new characters Evangeline Lilly's Tauriel was complemented as a great addition to the cast and the story, Legolas is a shot of fun to the movie, while Bard the Bowman landed with a mild thud. Smaug himself was more on fence with many critics thinking he was visually stunning but a bit one note as a villain. A few highlights below.

Entertainment Weekly (A+)

The Desolation of Smaug is a more grandly somber movie, and also a much better one, with forces of boldly intense and unified malevolence. ...This time Jackson nails that tone: the feeling that Bilbo, who's been recruited to steal back a wondrous gem called the Arkenstone from the dragon Smaug, is up against a cosmic storm of black forces. The dragon has ravaged the land, the angry, hulking orcs are on a power trip, and the elves — led by the imperious Thranduil (Lee Pace) — are isolationists who trap the dwarves in a dungeon, setting up a great escape via wine barrels on white rapids. ...Yet Jackson's direction is spiky and majestic, and the risky move of inventing his own Tolkien character — the elf guard Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) — as a love interest for Legolas (Orlando Bloom) pays off. These two bring some badly needed heat to the woodlands. Speaking of heat, the dragon is, quite simply, a marvel: gargantuan yet balletic, hoarding his mountain of gold with a razor-toothed smile, breathing not just flame but an inferno, and voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch with the most delicious, insidious knowledge.

Variety

"...The Desolation of Smaug” reps a major improvement on its predecessor simply by virtue of picking up at a more eventful place in the narrative... these character additions are meant to up the dramatic stakes and foster a sense of continuity with the “Rings” movies, the emotional gains are minimal. ...As ever, in terms of logistical mastery and marshaling of resources in service of a grandly involving bigscreen entertainment, one couldn’t ask for a better ringmaster (so to speak) than Jackson. There’s an unmistakable pleasure in being transported back to his Middle-earth, in being cushioned by the lush strains of Howard Shore’s score and dazzled by the elaborately detailed sets created by production designer Dan Hennah and his team, seamlessly integrating Weta’s topnotch visual effects."

Collider (B+)

"There’s a lot happening in Desolation of Smaug, but it all helps to broaden Middle-earth in a way Unexpected Journey never did. Unexpected Journey is passable enough, but it was never going anywhere particularly new or interesting. The goblin caves looked liked the Uruk-hai dwellings but with more wooden bridges. The forests were unremarkable. At one point they were climbing on stone giants for no particular reason. By comparison, Mirkwood and Lake-town have their own personalities, and more importantly, people talk about other places in Middle-earth. Jackson is showing and telling, and it makes the world feel lived in, but in a different way than Lord of the Rings. ...As for the new additions, Smaug and Bard are somewhat unremarkable. ...Smaug does a lot of talking, and Bilbo does a lot of scrambling. Most of Smaug’s dialogue boils down to, “Let me keep telling you how awesome I am and how everyone else sucks,” and it gets old quickly. He’s far more effective as a flying, fire-breathing, stampeding set piece."

Empire (5/5)

"While An Unexpected Journey had plenty of bucolic charm, it did, for a Middle-earth film, feel oddly inconsequential. The Desolation Of Smaug remedies that. Moody, urgent and, for want of a better word, Ringsier, it’s a much more satisfying film. As Bilbo (a still spot-on Martin Freeman) and co. near their destination, the film gets increasingly busy, splitting the group in two and intercutting between those strands and Gandalf (Ian McKellen), who’s off poking around the ruins of Dol Guldur. That storyline still hasn’t quite caught fire (it basically amounts to the wizard yelling at a giant, evil ink-blot), and it could be argued that more screentime might have been usefully given to the dwarves, who remain largely anonymous. Besides Thorin (Richard Armitage), whose facade of nobility is beginning to crumble, revealing baser motives beneath, the only one who gets much attention is Kili (Aidan Turner), vying with a returning Legolas (Orlando Bloom) for the attentions of auburn-haired elf ninja Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly). As love triangles go, it’s fairly rote — and might have been more dramatic were Kili not the one dwarf who looks like an elf anyway — but Tauriel, a character created for the film who’s already got some Tolkienites raging, fits seamlessly into the world and gets to execute several pleasingly brutal orc-kills: at points, the film’s one arrow-in-the-head away from turning into The Raid."

Rolling Stone (2.5/5)

"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a little less long and a little less boring. That's because after two hours of setup involving Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) as he hobbits along with the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and 13 dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), to win back the Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, the dragon shows up. This Smaug is a dragon to die for. Director Peter Jackson performs the same kind of miracles with the digital Smaug that he did with Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy."

Explore this great interactive map of lost Beleriand

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AppId is over the quota
April 19, 2014 at 11:32 pm by Demosthenes  - 

A couple of weeks ago we revealed LOTRProject’s new interactive map of Middle-earth — complete with key dates, events and character movements for events of the Second Age and Third Age.

Now Emil Johannson has reached back into the events of the Elder Days of Middle-earth’s history, creating a similar interactive map that depicts the key events of the elves’ war against Morgoth on a map of Beleriand.

Use the menu on the right-hand-side to reveal various events, places and key dates. You can also use it to track the journeys of the three great heroes of the Edain: Tuor, Turin and Beren (and Luthien). Click here, or on the image to check it out.

Posted in Christopher Tolkien, Creations, Fans, Green Books, J.R.R. Tolkien, Other Tolkien books, Silmarillion, Tolkien on April 19, 2014 by Demosthenes
Source: LOTRProject

Final Hobbit Movie Changing Title to Into The Fire?

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The remote server returned an unexpected response: (417) Expectation failed.
The One Ring is reporting a rather strange rumor that the final movie of The Hobbit trilogy will change its title from The Hobbit: There and Back Again to The Hobbit: Into the Fire. The There and Back Again sub-title has been associated with the movie since the then planned two movie adaptation of the novel. It is based on the "official" title as named by Bilbo in his memoirs from The Lord of the Rings. Basically it is the perfect title to use for the trilogy.

As a result this Into the Fire rumor comes at a bit of an time but The One Ring isn't in the habit of posting random rumors so its one you have to pay attention too even if your initial thought is to dismiss it as BS. But it is BS. TOR should have simply reported this as a "New Line registered new Hobbit title, purpose unknown" and then freely speculate on various purposes including title change. Their leap to changing the title of the final movie is a huge leap of logic with little support. Do not take is seriously. But since various mainstream websites reported this, I felt a need to post on it also.

Back to TOR, they apparently they decided the rumor was credible based on a few factors:
- New Line has registered the title The Hobbit: Into the Fire, exactly when isn't mentioned so can't place in any timeline for movie development.
- The Battle of Five Armies was another alternative title for the third film (or than second and final film) and New Line went far enough to register it at the same time they did The Desolation of Smaug. The main point is There and Back Again was one of several considered title options.
- No press, images or logo has yet to be released for The Hobbit: There and Back Again which means the movie studios have time to make title changes before the marketing machine kicks off and basically prevents them from making any title change.
- Studio execs have a history of assuming their audiences are so stupid that a title that might even be vaguely misinterpreted would negatively impact sales. "There and Back Again" might have been considered confusion by some executive (back from where, are they not already there". Probably whoever was this confused should probably be fired and clearly not qualified for their current job. This seems moronic...but studio execs really do think like this so the idea is entirely in the realm of possibility.
- Into the Fire fits the final story arc better. Besides being a simple, action orientated title, it also references Smaug the Dragon and the Battle of Five Armies that will be depicted in the movie.

My take is this is MGM making a registration for some future product that ties into the trilogy but isn't for the last movie. It is probably for a video game but could be for a contest, some new product, or any number of other things. I just don't see Peter Jackson signing off on a change. Nor do I see the MGM marketing department going for it considering the title has been out in the mainstream press for nearly two plus years now. If the concern is confusion, a title change pretty much guarantees it.

In addition, at this late in the game, the title change would cause all kinds of problems for tie-in products that are probably about to be or have already begun being manufactured for the final movie. Basically while 8 months seems like plenty of time to change and implement a title change, for something as expensive as The Hobbit trilogy with all kinds of related products, plans, marketing and other things already in motion, not only is a title change considered last minute, the window to make a changes probably closed mid-2013.

So again despite what other press sites report...treat this as a rumor and nothing more. Ignore it, don't even bother telling friends about it as just cause "I thought you said..." comments later.

Clock is ticking on the departure of HobbitCon 2 in Europe

April 18, 2014 at 10:55 pm by MrCere-

BONN - HobbitCon 2, in Bonn, Germany is a few hours just to start with a hotel is packed with special guest lecturers and fans everywhere in the world.

The Maritim hotel Bonn hosts the event, which includes all of the properties for the weekend. A complete list of conferences and presentations are planned from just a few hours from here. All 13 dwarves of the Hobbit films are present except Richard Armitage, who is the WonderCon, James Nesbitt, who was planned, but had to cancel and Aiden Turner. This means that Adam Brown, Jed Brophy, John Callen, Ken Stott, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Stephen Hunter, Dean O'Gorman, Graham McTavish, and William Kircher are all involved. (This means three trolls are here too!) The gentlemen were present and were rumored to have been observed to hang it around the hotel last night to talk together and with each other. Reportedly, 26 countries are represented at the event.

The first HobbitCon

Richard Taylor and Royd Tolkien were also in the House as Mark Atkin - Thorin Oakenshiled size scale. TheOneRing.net has three panels planned for the end of the week, including one tomorrow night, speculating on the third film in the adaptation of Peter Jackson. Throughout the event, scheduled in one place, it gives this whole a remarkable sense with intimate which is a little hard to explain. Its one of those things where you have to be there.

In fact, European fans can still get that, purchase tickets from the hotel market. Details can be found here. Ripped would be delighted to see you in person around the hotel and the first round table at 17!

Expect updates throughout the weekend.

Posted in Adam Brown, Aidan Turner, Conventions, Dean O'Gorman, events, fans, Graham McTavish, Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the Hobbit: desolation of Smaug, HobbitCon, James Nesbitt, Jed Brophy, John Callen, Ken Stott, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Richard Armitage, Stephen Hunter, the Hobbit: an unexpected journey, the Hobbit: the desolation of Smaug, the Hobbit: there and back again, William Kircher18 avril2014 by MrCere WonderCon