Stephen Colbert Interviews Smaug the Dragon

On Thursday, The Colbert Report had a surprise guest in the form of Smaug the Dragon. Not in a costume or as some voice but Weta actually used their CGI Smaug creation to do an "on stage" interview with Stephen Colbert that was both fantastic to watch and quite hilarious. In part because it seems the voice of Smaug, Benedict Cumberbatch, came to play as he made digs at Colbert, himself, Sherlock and Martin Freeman. The result is fantastic and highly recommend you watch.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug Motion Capture B-Roll

Below is a brief video that shows Benedict Cumberbatch performing as Smaug the Dragon from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. While I can see how his line readings, facial expressions and head movements were translated to the final performance of the pure CGI character, I have to admit I can't figure out why his body as a whole is also sporting the same motion capture dots and how they where used. I guess the upcoming release of the Extended Edition may clear that up.

SDCC: The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies Panel Description

Saturday Peter Jackson and some of the cast members of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies were on hand at Hall H to discuss the movie. As is usual for these things, none of it is made available to the public (keep thinking that would change each year) but at least have a description of the thirty minute or so panel. It started with a 360 degree reveal of the scroll panorama (video below) for the film, the teaser trailer and then a Q&A with the cast. Chances are the scroll image and teaser will be released very soon, maybe even this week. Full details here and here, highlights below.

New Desolation of Smaug TV Spot, Evangeline Lilly Interview, Smaug Clip and VFX Challenges

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is out now (as TV spot below reminds us) and already it has enjoyed a great first day with $8.8 million take for the midnight shows in the US. The current estimate is the movie is on track for a record $80 million weekend but no idea what the worldwide take will be.

The cast continues to make the talk show rounds (next 2 videos below). Evangeline Lilly appeared on The Daily Show to discuss the movie with Jon Stewart, teasing him about his complete lack of knowledge of the film while Benedict Cumberbatch popped up on Conan O'Brien. The interview itself was ok but the main but was the first real clip with Smaug. Its very brief as a portion of it was padded with stuff already shown in the trailers.

Over at THR, Weta's Joe Letteri discussed the challenges they faced creating the scenes with Smaug. Part of the problem was the impressive size as Smaug ("twice as big as a 747") with unique antomy that had to be taken in account when creating him in the computer. While you don't see it, they actually create a digital being complete with skeletal structure and muscles to help create a look of realistic movement. Since he has wings and other fantasy elements, that required often hand done animation to achieve the final effects. As to that the gold pile, "We had to simulate all the gold coins, every time he moved. Sometimes it was a little, sometimes it was a lot, but it ended up being over a billion gold coins. During some of the action sequences, threre were hundreds of millions of coins moving at once." Another difficulty was the barrel scene that often had to be completely re-created in the computer from the water, to the actors or replacing them digitally. More details here.

Cumberbatch Discusses Doing Smaug and the Necromancer

The main bad guy of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is the dragan itself as played by Benedict Cumberbatch. However, he also has another role in the movie, as the Necromancer, who is kind of a pre-formed version of Sauron. In the interview below with HitFix, the actor discusses the challenge of mo-capping and voicing the two roles.

Lilly Discusses Elvish (and Her Butt) While Cumberbatch Talks Smaug

The talk show circuit continues for the cast of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Currently the most ethusisatic and entertaining of the bunch has been Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel). Lilly stopped by Conan and the two main topics was Elvish (1st video below) and her butt which includes a new clip (2nd video). As for Benedict, the third video below is a straight forward edit of an interview with the actor as he discusses his role as Smaug the Dragon.

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)

Freeman, Evans Wrap on The Hobbit

Two more cast members are forever done filming scenes for The Hobbit trilogy. Martin Freeman (Bilbo) and Luke Evans (Bard the Bowman) have completed their work on the films. Evans final day was July 10th as noted by his tweet "Final day in Middle Earth." Peter Jackson marked Freeman's final day with a post and image. He also added a pic of Benedict Cumberbatch (voice and motion capture for Smaug).

Tonight Martin Freeman finished his last shot as Bilbo Baggins. The end of an incredible two and a half years. I cannot imagine anyone else in this role - a character that Martin has nurtured and crafted with love and great skill.

We have said goodbye to our elves, humans, wizards and now the hobbit. We now enter our final 2 weeks of pick-ups, and it's wall to wall dwarves. These pick-ups have been gruelling and intense, but I'm so happy with what we've been shooting. These next two movies are going to be pretty great!

Smaug 1st Appearance Hint?

One of the things that is interesting about writing about something like The Hobbit films compared to Transformers or Star Trek is the characters, plot and events are known. Technically there can't be any spoilers because all you have to do is pick up the books or hit up a wiki link to find out for yourself what happened. As a result the question for fans is more about the execution. How will favorite moments be portrayed on film? What changes will be made? What will be added and cut? Things like that. It reminds you that the journey a story take is just as important as knowing the specific “spoiler” details. The details don’t matter without the journey and the journey doesn’t matter without the details.

With the announcement of a third film, one of the new questions is exactly where will Peter Jackson choose to break up the films and introduce Smaug the Dragon played by Benedict Cumberbatch. In a recent interview he provided his own theory on how The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey may end that actually makes a lot of sense.

I think my eye might open at the end of the first film and then you’ll get the rest of me in the second.

If true it almost means that The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug would be a fitting title for the second film as it would likely focus on events from Laketown to the final fight with Smaug. Almost wish they would just go with The Hobbit (for part one), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (for part two) and The Hobbit: There and Back Again (for part three). I guess we will find out in a little less than four months.

Cumberbatch on Working on The Hobbit

The Hobbit's Benedict Cumberbatch spoke with MTV about his deal roles of Smaug the Dragon and the Necromancer last Sunday. It revealed nothing about the story but he commented on the voice work and getting a chance to work with Peter Jackson and his Sherlock co-star Martin Freeman. The video is below.

"I was very lucky [to work] with Pete," Cumberbatch told us at Elton John's Oscar-viewing party. "As far as the experience, what an extraordinary one it was because at the time I was in my work; I was in isolation with him and this incredible tag team. And at the very cool place with that technology doing mo-cap for two characters, Smaug the dragon and another character, which will remain nameless, and it was an awful lot of fun."

Cumberbatch Reveals Minor Plot Spoiler

In an interview with Empire to promote BBC's Sherlock, Benedict Cumberbatch commented on his roles of Smaug and the Necromancer, revealing a tiny plot change.

"I’m playing Smaug through motion-capture and voicing the Necromancer, which is a character in the Five Legions War or something which I’m meant to understand. He’s not actually in the original Hobbit. It’s something [Peter Jackson]’s taken from Lord Of The Rings that he wants to put in there."

In the novel, the Battle of Five Armies (his Legions reference) is essentially a fight over Smaug's treasure after his defeat. The Necromancer (aka Sauron) was defeated in a battle at Mirkwood that occurred "off screen" halfway through the novel. In the book, Gandalf left Bilbo and co to their own devices why taking care of an unspecified adventure that was revealed in later books to be a fight with
Sauron.

The comment above suggests either a few things. One is Peter Jackson merged the two battles, giving a greater purpose to the Five Armies battle beyond simple greed. I think the more likely possibility is both battles are depicted in the movies (Mirkwood in Unexpected Adventure, Five Armies in There and Back Again), with Mirkwood being the first fight with Sauron and the Five Armies being the second while retaining its significance as would provide a nice transition to Sauron rising to power in Mordor for The Lord of the Rings. This fits with what little we know of filming as the departure of Gandalf is kept in the movie (per an AICN set report) and while providing a significant battle for the first movie, something the book didn't have. If true, Tolkien purists will pitch a fit but I doubt movie goers will complain.

Cumberbatch on Playing Smaugh and More

Benedict Cumberbatch is having a hell of a year. After the premiere of Sherlock at the beginning of the year, he suddenly became a much sought after actor. The result is he in critically acclaimed movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and soon Steven Spielberg's War Horse. Season 2 of Sherlock will premiere on New Year's Day and he will start the new year filming the role that will potentially take him to a new level of stardom with Smaug The Dragon for the two Hobbit films.

In the video from Collider, he talks about his recent roles and at the 3:45 point he talks about the Smaug role. He mentions how he is physicalizing the role (aka much like how Andy Serkis did Gollum) and how he is exercising to prep for the role. Spoiler wise not a whole lot of info but continues to make me intrigued on how a human is going to be "acting" the role of a dragon. In the past it was just facial expressions but apparently Peter Jackson plans on moving this to the next level.

Benedict On "Physicalizing" Smaug The Dragon

Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch discusses the rather unusual role he as for The Hobbit films with Collider in the video below. Not only will he voice Smaug the Dragon, one of the main villains of the films, but he will also provideg the physical performance for the creature. Typically the facial recordings might be used in recreating the performance but apparently that will extend to the full body of the creature to. Should be interesting to see how that works.

A very busy Benedict Cumberbatch commented to Variety about some of what he is doing to prepare for the role of Smaug for The Hobbit films. He said, "I'll be donning … well, probably not Andy Serkis' sweaty wet suit … I'm sure they dry clean it. Playing a reptile is something I don't believe has been done before. I've already started working out, crawling around on my belly whenever I can without alarming people too much."

Smaug is a large dragon that guards a huge Dwarf treasure trove that Bilbo Baggins and his band Dwarves are hoping to reclaim. Based on what he is saying it seems he will be doing more than providing the voice. He will also go the Gollum route of acting the part of a dragon. I imagine the goal will be not so much to capture the movements of a gigantic lizard but to get the subtle facial movements as the lines are acted.

Cumberbatch's Hobbit Roles Revealed

Deadline is reporting that Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) has been cast as the voice of Smaug the Dragon and as the voice of the Necromancer. He will also perform the motion capture for Smaug. He was rumored last month to have been cast as Smaug but this is the first report to indicate that it is true.

"Congratulations, dear Watson"

Sir Ian McKellen has updated his The Hobbit blog with a new post called "Congratulations, dear Watson." The post is a congratulations to Benedict Cumberbatch joining the cast of The Hobbit. The title is a reference to Martin Freeman who plays Dr. Watson to Cumberbatch's Sherlock in the BBC TV series Sherlock. The role he will play but McKellen did write, "The sleuths are the third double-act in The Hobbit." indicating that his role might come towards the end of the story in the battle against Smaug and Laketown. Something the One Ring theorized last week. Click here to read McKellen's full post.

Cumberbatch to Voice Smaug? (Updated)

Just the other day Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch was rumored to be joining the Hobbit production and now the rumor mill has assigned him a role.

Early reports suggest Cumberbatch will voice the dragon character Smaug but the actor refused to specify his role, insisting, "I can't say at the moment, thank you very much."

A red-faced Freeman later told reporters, "I knew I was a sort of a big mouth but I didn't realize to what extent I was a big mouth, and I've just ruined everything. I might not actually go back to a job - they might have just sacked (fired) me."

Not really sure why an actor joining the production is a big secret but the direct quote from Freeman at least confirms he has joined the production. Before now the rumor had assigned the voice of Smaug to Leonard Nimoy but that seemed to be a remote possibility. Smaug is the dragon that is hoarding all the treasure that Bilbo Baggins and the Dwarves are traveling to defeat in the novel.

Update:The One Ring (rightly) dismisses the Smaug rumor as unproven nonsense and provides their own theory on Cumberbatch's role. They believe he would be an excellent candidate for Bard the Bowman. Bard is one of the citizens of Laketown near Smaug's lair. While the character's part in the Hobbit novel was short, it was pretty significant and with a little embellishment on the Peter Jackson part, become an important supporting role in the movies. As usual all this remains rumor until something official is announced.

Sherlock Joining The Hobbit?

A tweet from the BBC's Lizo Mzimba indicates another actor may be joining the cast of The Hobbit. He wrote, "Martin Freeman just said Benedict Cumberbatch will be in The Hobbit." Benedict Cumberbatch plays the title character in BBC's Sherlock along with Bilbo Baggins himself, Martin Freeman. Currently Freeman is on hiatus from The Hobbit production to film the three episode 2nd season. If ever watch Sherlock (and you really should), then it’s pretty clear that if this comes true then Cumberbatch is likely playing an elf. (via TheOneRing)