The Hobbit: On Set Interview with Evangeline Lilly

In their second of a series of on the set of The Hobbit, The One Ring sat down with Evangeline Lilly to discuss how she was cast in the role of Tauriel, her concerns on taking the role, her love of Tolkien and more. I think the interview is around summer 2012 for context. The highlights are below, for the full interview: Part 1 | Part 2.

Amazing Spider-Man 2 Trailer Attached to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

A creative tweet (below) from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 director Marc Webb reveals that the movie's first trailer will be attached to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug when it is released on December 13, 2013.

pic.twitter.com/K3v62T6Npl

— Marc Webb (@MarcW) October 29, 2013

The translation:
"WATCH FOR THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 TRAILER IN FRONT OF THE HOBBIT IN 3D"
I don't know if that means its only for 3D or if it will appear in front of all versions of the movie. Probably doesn't really matter as sure it will also debut online a few days before. Still it is a nice little extra incentive to see the next addition to The Hobbit Trilogy.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug TV Spots #4 and #5

Two more TV spots aired for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug out on 12/13/13.

Desolation of Smaug Images, Fan Event

The 2014 The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug calendar has a new images from the upcoming movie. In most cases its the same characters have already seen but do get a look at the Master of Laketown (Stephen Fry), the Bard and his son Bain. The full set can be found here.

As part of the promotion for the December 13th release of the movie, New Line and MGM are going to have a "global fan celebration" on November 4th at 5:00PM EST in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Wellington. The unknown theater in each city will have a satellite, real time connection to Peter Jackson, some of the cast and crew to show footage from the film and answer fan questions with host Anderson Cooper. The announced cast will be Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Richard Armitage (Thorin), Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel), Lee Pace (Thranduil), Luke Evans (Bard), and Andy Serkis (2nd Unit director). Other cities may have their own events but they will be in spectator view as get a look at the event but not participate with cast and crew. As for the rest of us not in any participating city, the good news is the event will also be streamed live over the internet. Eventually all the details will but up on the official site.

New Images Show Cumberbatch Motion Capture for Smaug

New images posted on TolkienNerd's flickr show Benedict Cumberbatch performing his motion capture for his role as Smaug the Dragon in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. While his casting has been known for over a year, this is the first time able to get an idea on how a human would play a dragon. The pics are probably from an upcoming production diary so will hopefully learn more about how it works soon. (via The One Ring)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Digital Version Available Now

Now available exclusively on iTunes for $14.99 is The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition digital download. This only gives you an HD copy of the movie, not a physical copy. With the copy will come the digital special features of the The Appendices Part 7 and Part 8 that provide a detailed look at making the movie. The LOTR Appendices were simply the best behind the scenes extras ever seen as their goal was more documentary of the making the trilogy. Most extras with other movies are really glorified sales pitches. Something that has never made sense as the act of watching the extra makes the sales pitch redundant.

I do not recommend getting the digital version as physical copy will be released on November 5th for probably a better deal as it will be a Blu-ray disc and digital copy (details) for probably around the $20 price. As always you can pre-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

Three New Lego The Desolation of Smaug Lego Sets Tease Story Points

Three new Lego sets for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug reveal a few story points for the upcoming movie. One of them is known to anyone that has read the novel with a playset of the Mirkwood Elves. The other two are new to the story with two playset for the Battle of Dol Guldur between Gandalf and Radagast versus Azog and his orcs. The backside of the boxes can be found on Flickr.

New Desolation of Smaug Mirkwood Poster (Updated)

The One Ring has posted a new poster for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug that features the main elves for the movie with Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), and Thranduil (Lee Pace) with background of the Mirkwood Forest. Based on the motif with the elven sword, I would not be surprised if this is the first of several posters that re-introduces the entire film cast.

Update: It turns out that the image is not be a new poster but art of a puzzle set. Either way it looks good.

Evangeline Lilly, Peter Jackson and Others Talk The Desolation of Smaug (Updated)

Not sure why but more than the usual number of sites posted their interviews with mostly Evangeline Lilly but also with few other actors from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Also have a few set reports. Usually this far away from release its one site posting something and the rest then posting about that first post. The timing is weird to me because usually this is the kind of thing you start seeing around two weeks before a movie opens, not two months. It might be worth reading as these questions will eventually be asked hundreds of times by reporters so for now the answers are less sales pitchy, longer and more spontaneous until the repetition results in the short and concise answers normally see.

Evangeline Lilly's interviews are probably the most interesting as she is clearly very enthusiastic about the role of Tauriel and is glad to be able to finally talk about it. I am starting to suspect she is a bit of a closet geek. The One Ring's set visit is also of interest as the writer was an extra on the New Zealand so provides his view of the experience. Worth while as written by a fan living a dream trying to report the experience rather then as a reporter who really isn't a fan and doesn't really care about the subject they cover (like most entertainment reporters). Links below.

Update: Added links to Dark Horizon's interviews with Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman.

Set Visit (The One Ring) - Set extra and fan discussing his experience on the set. Part of 1 of future unknown number.

Evangeline Lilly and Orlando Bloom (io9) - Discuss adding these characters to the story since are not in the book, in Bloom's case returning to the role and more.

Evangeline Lilly (Collider) - Seems Lilly tired of her gorgeous long hair and chopped it. Also talks at length about Tauriel, what the character brings to the story, and how different from other elves.

Evangeline Lilly (Dark Horizons) - Discusses casting, costume, adding a female to movie, elven ears, and filming.

Peter Jackson (HitFix) - The director talks 48FPS, using some of Guillermo del Toro's vision for the film, and more.

Luke Evans (Dark Horizons) - Discusses being cast, scale of the shoot, green screen work and more.

Set Visit (Yahoo) - 10 brief (and mostly meh) factoids from a set visit.

Ian McKellen (Dark Horizons) - He discusses differences in experience of shooting LOTRs vs Hobbit trilogies, green screen and more. A lot of it is a retread of questions he answered for Journey.

Martin Freeman (Dark Horizons) - Bilbo discusses pace differences between the two Hobbit films, demands of filing a trilogy, and not really filming with his Sherlock co-star Benedict Cumberbatch who voices Smaug the Dragon.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Official Synopsis

Turns out the Warner Bros. has not released the official synopsis for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug until now. Normally these get the released around the same time they first start teasing the movie so not sure why the delay.

Of note is the Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, and Hugo Weaving are not mentioned. This could mean they have no role or the role is much smaller than even in An Unexpected Journey. I suspect they are not in the movie as there was no means to insert them into the middle story events. All the characters are still on the same journey they were when left Rivendell in Journey so really no reason to swing back to those three in an organic way. Below is the synopsis.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Scroll

Last year WB released a large "scroll" for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. They have now done the same for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. This time the emphasis is on the character's rather then events but it still sweet looking. Below is the large banner or you can find the four segments of it here. I went ahead and used the new banner as an excuse to replace the old one for the blog.

Epic Lego Battle of Helm's Deep Creation

Using a combination of 150,000 Lego bricks, 2,000 mini-figs, and six months of man hours to build has resulted in this truly epic Lego version of the Battle of Helm's Deep as depicted in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Created by GOEL and Big J, the final result weighs about 400 pounds. It is not an official Lego creation but it should be. Definitely click here to check out the entire gallery to get into the sweet details of the piece of Lego art. (via THR)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug TV Spot #3

The third TV spot for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug that will be out on December 13th.

Five Clean Versions of The Hobbit Banners

The One Ring has posted the "clean" versions of the five banners that were released with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug's second trailer. The clean portion refers to it just being the artwork without all the movie related text covering it up. My favorite is probably the elves one mostly because Evangeline Lilly is smoking hot in it. Any case enjoy the lot below.

First Look at The Hobbit's Beorn

One of the characters that will be introduced in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is the character of Beorn. The character, who shifts into a massive black bear, helps Bilbo and the Dwarves on their journey to Erebor. The character will likely also be in The Hobbit: Here and Back Again as part of the Battle of Five Armies sequence. The image from Italian site Hobbit Film posted the image to the left that shows what the human character will look like as played by Mikael Persbrandt. (via TORn)

The Hobbit Trilogy Cost at $561 Million

Variety is reporting that the current cost to make The Hobbit Trilogy stands at $561 million dollars. That cost is nearly double The Lord of the Rings trilogy which was around $300 million to make. That cost only includes the initial 266 days when the plan was two films and not the recently complete two additional months of pick-ups. It sounds massive but the estimated budget for the two films was around $550 million with Warner Bros agreeing to absorb the additional cost for a third film. Basically while the number is high with a final cost being in the $200 million per film range, it really isn't that massive considering the average tent pole film nowadays costs in the $150 to $200 million range. Considering The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey made over $1 billion in worldwide box office (not including merchandising, home video sales, etc.), it seems like the $200 million per film was a very wise investment.

Two TV Spots for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

To go with the release of the new trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, WB has already started airing two new TV spots with various shows. A bit earlier then normal but its the same approach the studio took with Gravity.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Trailer #2

Trailer 2 for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is now out for your enjoyment.

More The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Banners

To go with yesterday's banners of the Bilbo, the Dwarves and Thranduil, today WB has released two more banners. One is for Gandalf and the other depicts Tauriel and Legolas. The banners were released with today's debut of trailer #2.