The Hobbit (the Jackson films)

[Arcadia]

I don't have to worry about the birds and bunnies, they are QUITE safe from my lazy kitty! Altho the vole population will never be the same again, thanks to the previous cat .....

[Carol the Dabbler]

I wouldn't worry at all about the vole population -- it should recover from the previous cat in very short order.

 

Our cats all live indoors, but the local coyotes, hawks, owls, foxes, and snakes keep the voles in check.  Likewise the rabbits and birds, I'm afraid.

 

[Arcadia]

Nope, we never see voles anymore. It's been about 7 years now. She did a thorough job. Never touched birds or mice, just voles. Oh, and butterflies. She LUVVED to eat butterflies. (!)

[Caya]

Radio Times article here - Sir Ian McKellen talking about how frustrating shooting in all that green screen was.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I can imagine that must have been a very lonely experience (and McKellen says similar things in the DVD extras) -- I'm glad that everything got patched up and the scenes turned out beautifully!

 

Odd though that they say they shot him only 25% bigger.  My calculations come out more like 50% bigger -- but maybe they found that 50% made things look odd.  Sometimes you just have to go with what looks and feels right, instead of what your calculator tells you.

 

[Arcadia]

I just stumbled across these, Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage "interviewing" each other for the first Hobbit film .... really charming.

 

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Benedict+Cumberbatch&qpvt=Benedict+Cumberbatch&FORM=VQFRML#view=detail&mid=08613F6AC25BE496841508613F6AC25BE4968415

 

and

 

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Benedict+Cumberbatch&qpvt=Benedict+Cumberbatch&FORM=VQFRML#view=detail&mid=08613F6AC25BE496841508613F6AC25BE4968415

[Caya]

Here's a video of the SDCC Hobbit panel:

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Thanks, Martina -- I'll ask Alex to download that next time he gets a chance!

 

Do you happen to know who all those people are?  That has to be Peter Jackson seated next to the podium -- and kinda looks like Elijah Wood second from right -- but that initial frame is far too blurry for me to hazard any more guesses.

 

[Arcadia]

I knew my LOTR geekitude would come in handy someday!

L to R:

Stephen Colbert, moderator

Peter Jackson
not sure, but I assume Phillipa Boyens
some guy named Benedict something, never heard of him
Cate Blanchett
Orlando Bloom
Evangeline Lilly
Luke Evans
I'm not sure but I'm thinking either Fili or Kili, probably Fili (Dean O'Gorman) based on the hair color
Graham McTavish? (Dwalin)
Elijah Wood
Andy Serkis

[Carol the Dabbler]

Thanks, Arcadia!

 

Maybe it's that Cucumber guy that people keep talking about.

 

[Arcadia]

Yeah, him. Bandersnatch. What's he ever done, anyway? You'd think he was some great actor or something, the way people go on about him.

[Arcadia]

Wow, I was way off, it's neither Fili nor Kili, it's Thranduil; Lee Pace.

[Arcadia]

Here's a different angle with a far better soundtrack.

[Janie]

Trailer:

 

 

 

I wanted to post a video but don't know how to do it... 

Edited July 29, 2014 by Caya
Just paste the link in, the forum software recognizes it all by itself :)

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh, cool, Jana!  The official trailer for The Battle of Five Armies!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ZSzeFFsKEt4

 

December is coming!

 

[Arcadia]

Oh, this is just too cute to resist: Andy Serkis and BC swapping character voices. Just a few seconds long.

 

https://www.keek.com/#ETCanada/keek/7s2geab

[Janie]

The first clip from the extended version of DoS.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh, thanks, Janie!  I had of course noticed (sort of a spoiler if you haven't read the book and/or seen the movie and/or watched the video)

that they'd omitted the stream sequence, and assumed it was because they didn't want the other Dwarves having to carry Bombur for half of the movie.  But now I see that they did film a version of it, and Bombur does fall in

-- so now I'm really puzzled!  Hopefully the rest of the deleted scenes (and/or the commentary) will explain.

 

And thanks for the reminder (in the article accompanying the video) that the extended edition will be released on November 3rd.  Oddly enough, I don't see it on Amazon yet, not even for pre-ordering.

 

[T.o.b.y]

I just saw the trailer for the next Hobbit film, and this caught my eye:

 

 

What are they up to with my two favorite characters?! Oh well, Gandalf can't die yet...

[Carol the Dabbler]

 

Gandalf is injured in the Battle of the Five Armies, at least in the book, where Bilbo notices that his arm is in a sling afterward.  So maybe it has to do with that.  And of course he survives!

 

 

[Arcadia]

Since Galadriel is there, I think it will be in the scene where they

drive the Necromancer out of Mirkwood.

 

[Arcadia]

Was there an extended version of An Unexpected Journey? Somehow I missed that.

[Carol the Dabbler]

You mean poor Gandalf gets beat up twice?  Though of course, we have only Bilbo's assumption about the later time -- maybe the injury had occurred earlier, as you suggest, and Gandalf was simply still a little the worse for wear when Bilbo sees him later -- if that later scene even occurs in the movie.

 

Yup, there are extended editions of "Unexpected Journey" in several media, possibly with somewhat different contents.  The regular ("Special") edition has only the production blogs, and some of the extended editions do not include those.  So make sure you're getting what you think you're getting.

 

[Arcadia]

Well, to the best of my recollection Tolkien doesn't mention him getting beat up the first time, I assume that's another confection from the Fran/Phillipa/Peter team.

 

Er ... several different versions? Egad. Do any of the versions include an actual extended cut of the movie? Although if it's only more orc scenes, I really don't want to see them!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yes, I believe that the extended edition does indeed have an extended cut of the movie -- in other words, they put the extra scenes where they belong, rather than in a separate "deleted scenes" section -- but it's been a while since we watched it, so I could be misremembering.  I know there's a longer approach-to-Rivendell scene, and a scene where the dwarves go skinny-dipping in a fountain there, not sure what else.

 

The unfamiliar scene with Galadriel is, I believe, another goodie from the Appendices -- so it was made up by Tolkien, though Jackson et al. may well have "modified" it a bit!