Even More from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Score

WB's Watertower Music has once again bumped their sampling from the score of The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. It started at 30s, then 60s and now its 90s sample for each track. The full score will be released on December 10th and now available for pre-order: special edition | regular edition

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug TV Spot #9

In time for US' Thanksgiving Day, here is TV spot #9 for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug coming December 13, 2013.

High Resolution Images from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

While the pace of TV spots and posters has been pretty brisk, the one thing that has been lacking is movie stills. Until now as the WB plays catch up by releasing 36 images from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. The full set can be found here.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug TV Spot #9, Two Posters and Cover Song

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is about three weeks away from release and the marketing campaign continues. The latest TV spot has air (below) that teases more of Smaug himself. Also two new posters were found that look similar to previous posters to point that I am not entirely sure if official or not. Thanks to Mathieu G. for the link. Last but not least is cover version of Ed Sheeran's "I See Fire" for the movie as performed by Matthew Jordan with Ginny Luke. Probably the first of many covers for is actually a pretty solid song once give it a few listens.

More Score Samples from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Soundtrack

A few days ago WB's WaterTower Music provided 30 second samples from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Soundtrack as composed by Howard Shore. Now they have doubled the length to a minute from each track for 30 minutes of music. The full score will be released on December 10th and now available for pre-order: special edition | regular edition

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug TV Spot #8

The TV spots keep coming with number 8 for The Hobbit: TDOS.

Journey Through Middle-Earth With Google Chrome

Google and Warner Bros have teamed together to create a new interactive app for Google Chrome web browser that lets you explore Middle Earth. It starts as a very detailed map of Middle-Earth that kind of has a video game element to hit. Currently on three areas are available - Trollshaw Forrest, Rivendell, and Gol Guldur. Those location match areas from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I would be surprised if other areas are added to match the other films down the line. You can find the "Google Chrome Experiment" here.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug TV Spot #7

TV spot #7 has been released for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug coming December 13th.

Air New Zealand's New The Hobbit Ad

Last year Air New Zealand created an airline safety video/ad that took advantage of New Zealand's close association with The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. They have now released their follow-up that is more or less a straight up ad but with lots of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug references. There is no new movie footage but its a cute ad that ends with a great slogan of "Middle Earth is Close Than You Think".

Score Samples from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Soundtrack

One of the joys a new edition to The Hobbit trilogy is it means a new edition to the excellent series of scores from composer Howard Shore. Just like last year, the soundtrack for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will come in two editions - the regular version and the special edition that will be released on December 10th, just days before the movie itself. Amazon has just the special edition and regular edition available for pre-order but really there is no reason to get the regular edition.

To tease the upcoming release, WaterTower Music (part of Warner Bros) has released a sampler with the full track list for the special edition (below) that lets you here snippets from each of the tracks. To no surprise it sounds excellent and makes me look forward to hearing the rest. You can also listen to "A Feast of Starlight" on the official website.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug TV Spot #6

During the series premiere of Almost Human, the next TV spot for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug aired. It does have a few new scenes but most if previous footage.

Denny's Joins with Desolation of Smaug for New Menu, Look at Beorn's Home

Much like last year, Denny has joined with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug to create a Hobbit inspired menu in time for the Holidays. Just as important for fans is exclusive content that looks at the making of the movie starting with a look at Beorn's house which is built to the scale of a near giant compared to the much smaller hobbit and dwarves. The video and press release on the new menu is below.


Press release:

New The Desolation of Smaug Triptych Poster

The poster fest continues as The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has released yet another poster. This time three part poster manages to cram a lot of characters into its five pie segments.

Evangeline Lilly Talks More About Tauriel

Last week The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug held a fan event that Evangeline Lilly participated in. After the "live" portion, she stuck around and fielded additional questions from Entertainment Weekly and fans. A few interesting tidbits came out from the session including the background of the character (parents killed by Orcs), that she read The Silmarillion (no easy task as harsh read), and more. The video can be found here.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition Out Now

It turns out that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition is now out on Blu-ray and DVD. I am a bit late to the party as the sets came out a few days ago while I was thinking it was next week. If a fan of the movie, I highly recommend getting, mostly because the Peter Jackson does extra features better than anyone else in Hollywood. The movie itself as 14 minutes of additional scenes (details on new scenes here) but its the special features that make it worth the double-dip. Below is one of the new scenes. You can order from Amazon now: 3D Blu-ray Set | Blu-ray Set | DVD Set | 3D Blu-ray Amazon Exclusive Statue Edition | Blu-ray Amazon Exclusive Statue Edition

Desolation of Smaug's "I See Fire" End Credits Song

Peter Jackson has posted a music video/making of for the end of credits song for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Titled "I See Fire" and performed by Ed Sheeran, the track will be part of the soundtrack when its released in a few weeks. While not as good as The Lord of the Rings credit songs, its still a solid addition. For some reason it reminds me of something Tracy Chapman would perform.

Five New Posters, Two Stills for The Desolation of Smaug

Despite a busy Monday for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with a fan Q&A, bunch of posters, and production diary, the mini-media blitz continues with even more posters and few stills from the movie. (via Collider)

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug Sneak Peek, Fan Event Video and New Poster

Today was a good day for The Hobbit fans. Warner Bros held a "fan event" (1st video below) for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug that let people at four theaters ask questions to the cast and crew. Those that participated included Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis, Peter Jackson, Luke Evans, and others. During the event a sneak peak was shown (2nd video) as was production video #12 (3rd video below). Last but not least a new poster is out that shows off all the new cast members.

Highlights from the fan event:
- The 10 weeks of pickups over the summer included filming the Battle of Five Armies and footage for Desolation of Smaug.
- Evangeline Lilly said Tinkerbell influences how she played Tauriel as "she's tiny and she's cute but she is fierce. You do not wanna get on the wrong side of Tink." She figured since her character is young by elf standards, she tried to avoid copying Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett.
- Even though Legolas is 60 years younger than age in Lord of the Rings, for an elf those 60 years are a "blink of an eye" so had no influence on how played character.
- Luke Evans explained that while it appears he is holding his bow incorrectly, it is actually correct for that type of bow due to the longer arrows.
- Said the last day of the shoot was emotional due to goodbyes to cast and crew and more but "underneath it all is a sense of relief" as moves on to post production on "putting the second movie together" which he was looking forward too.
- Never released a blooper reel for Lord of the Rings but open to the idea. Main problem is a bunch of 35mm film to go through to find them and the quality of the images will likely be similar to VHS

Seven New Character Posters for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

WB has released seven new posters to go with the upcoming release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug on December 13, 2013. Bit surprised they don't have a Smaug one but guess they want to save the reveal for the movie.