Stephen Colbert is the Lord of the Lord of the Rings. The Colbert Report anchor appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live with his friend and Comedy Central colleague, Jon Stewart, to talk about how their cultural interests define them and to further fuel speculation that Colbert will be making a cameo in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
If you'd like Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to be a total surprise when it opens on Dec. 14, then, by all means, skip to another post on this page. You won't want to read my reference to a very in-depth — and whimsically illustrated — piece on the secrets of the first installment of the Hobbit trilogy. more »
"Home is now behind you. The World Is Ahead," Ian McKellen, as Gandalf, says in voiceover in this latest official trailer from Peter Jackson's first installment of The Hobbit trilogy, which is subtitled, An Unexpected Journey. The movie is set for release on Dec. 14, and the trailer offers glimpses of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, McKellen as Gandalf, a CGI-assisted Andy Serkis as Gollum, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel and Hugo Weaving as Elrond. more »
Peter Jackson took to the interwebs to usher in Tolkien Week - currently underway, natch - announcing a new trailer for December's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey that will drop Wednesday the 19th. (Mark your calendars, wizards!) And for good measure, USA Today debuted a new batch of exclusive Hobbit pics for your viewing pleasure. Gollum is ready for his close-up.
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That sound you hear is the cheering of hairy-footed Tolkien addicts everywhere. At 11:30 a.m. Monday morning, the lord of The Lord of the Rings franchise Peter Jackson confirmed via his Facebook page that The Hobbit would indeed be a trilogy.
"It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made," Jackson wrote. "Recently Fran [Walsh], Phil [Boyens] and I did just this when we watched for the first time an early cut of the first movie — and a large chunk of the second. We were really pleased with the way the story was coming together, in particular, the strength of the characters and the cast who have brought them to life. All of which gave rise to a simple question: do we take this chance to tell more of the tale? And the answer from our perspective as the filmmakers, and as fans, was an unreserved ‘yes.'" more »
Hobbit director Peter Jackson is nothing if not a man of the people, so when he took to San Diego's Comic-Con earlier this month to present footage to 6,000+ lucky fans shortly after wrapping, he recorded a video diary to share with the rest of the Lord of the Rings faithful. Watch as Jackson navigates the perils of press junkets and Hall H's screaming fans, filming on his trusty iPhone along the way! Or, y'know... skip ahead a few minutes to fantastic 10+ minutes of behind-the-scenes peeks from the set of The Hobbit.
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After bringing 12 minutes of The Hobbit to Comic-Con — where Peter Jackson purposefully did not present footage in the 48 frames per second/3-D presentation that perplexed audiences at CinemaCon — the Lord of the Rings filmmaker spoke further about his desire to explore even more ground in the fantasy universe created by J.R.R. Tolkien. One possibility may be a third Hobbit film culled from Tolkien’s expansive LOTR notes and appendices, though Jackson admitted that the author’s posthumously published Silmarillion might present more of a challenge.
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Peter Jackson is currently experiencing the direct opposite of the CinemaCon Oscar Hype phenomenon explored here last week, with his Hobbit — shot at the adventurous rate of 48 frames per second — drawing more than a few skeptics out of the geek woodwork. This calls for damage control.
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Unveiling 10 minutes of Hobbit footage in 3-D at the revolutionary frame rate of 48 frames per second (vs. the standard 24 fps), as Warner Bros. did Tuesday at CinemaCon, should have been the first big buzz moment for Peter Jackson's return to Middle Earth. The immediate reaction to the presentation, however, was anything but good news for the studio or for proponents of the kind of cutting-edge high frame rate cinema technology Jackson and folks like James Cameron and Douglas Trumbull have been championing as the future of film. Instead, it left members of the blogger corps. calling it "jarring," "non-cinematic," and "like a made for television BBC movie," predicting that audiences will be split in embracing the brave new advance.
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Writing from the set of The Hobbit, Peter Jackson took to Facebook Monday to blog his thoughts on filming at 48 frames per second -- the increased frame rate championed by folks like James Cameron, who will use it to blow minds in Avatar 2 and 3. Jackson is currently filming The Hobbit in 3-D at 48 fps instead of the industry standard 24 fps, and as a result, the Lord of the Rings follow-up will be the first wide release to pave the way into a brave new digital world of filmmaking -- whether or not theaters around the world are ready for it.
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