Bard Poster for The Hobbit 3

Joining the Bilbo, Gandalf and Galadriel posters is a poster for Bard the Bowsman whose role in the film is probably much larger then it was in the book for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

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.

Clip #4 From The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

A new clip from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug joins the previous 3 that have been released to help promote the movie.  Considering the movie is still a week out, I imagine this is just the beginning of more clips and TV spots. This one is a confrontation between Bard the Bowman and Thorin as he tries to drum up support to lay seige on Erebus and drive out Smaug.

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.

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.

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.

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!

The Hobbit Production Video #11

Peter Jackson has posted his next production diary from the set of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. To start Jackson reveals that he will not be doing anything for San Diego Comic-Con, something he traditionally does try to participate in to promote his movies. From there its welcome to the world of green screen with quick cuts of scenes being filmed, sets and the like being rebuilt with most of it coming from storage when the the films wrapped the first time. The Hobbit actors begin their training for new fight scenes including The Battle of Five Armies (but no scenes) as that will be the finale of trilogy. He also shows an interesting example of a pick-up where a riverside scene was filmed for real the first time and later "picked-up" on a lot set that re-creates that river side rock structures. There is also a look at "new" cast members Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel), and Luke Evans (Bard)
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Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman on the Hobbit Set

ComicBookMovie has posted several images of Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman on The Hobbit set as he performed a stunt on Laketown set. Assuming he doesn't get an early introduction, the character will probably not show up until The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Three more images can be found here.

The Hobbit Production Video #7

After a three month drought, Peter Jackson has posted to Facebook a new production video. This video is a tour of the Stone Street Studio in Maramar, New Zealand. It is a tour of departments and crew that supports the filming of The Hobbit. Various actors and crewman showed off the many departments including stunts, hair & makeup, costumes, various stages, art department, and the list keeps going. It was a great snippet of behind the scenes footage that just some of the filming without the usual sales pitches that 99.9% of behind the scenes stuff inflict on us. These diaries just let the work speak for themselves. Something other film productions (and DVD/Blu-ray extra creators) could learn from. Pictures have been posted here.
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Luke Evans Talks the Bard

Luke Evans, who plays Bard the Bowman, spoke with Total Film about his role in The Hobbit films. There might be more in the latest issue of Total Film magazine, below is just what posted online. One comment, "I shoot a lot of arrows..." probably refers to the character's participation in the Battle of Five Armies which The Hobbit book skips over but There and Back Again will show.

Are you tinkering around with the character of Bard the Bowman?
“There’s slightly more Bard in the movie than is in the novel. Everything in the book is definitely in the film but… [whispers] I’ll have my tongue cut out if I say anything else. Let’s put it this way – I shoot a lot of arrows…”

What’s it like, walking onto that set for the first time?
“I can’t really describe it. When I first arrived I went straight to Bilbo’s house. I saw it on the big screen when I was 21 and there I was, walking around it in costume – a very special moment. I’ll look back on that in 20 years and hopefully be as proud as I am now.”

Luke Evans Heading to New Zealand

Luke Evans, currently making the rounds to promote Immortal, spoke briefly with MovieFone about what his next on his schedule - The Hobbit. He will be spending the next year filming the role of Bard the Bowman, suggesting that the character will have a much more central role in events than he had in the book.

Have you been practicing your archery skills?
Yes, I was trained for three weeks in New Zealand with a stunt coordinator, learning my new weapon. I've gone from swords in 'Musketeers' and a bow -- a long bow at that -- for 'The Hobbit,' so it's been a really interesting education, because there's very different ways of using a bow and arrow, so I've learned lots of them to make it look realistic.

Luke Evans Auditioned for The Hobbit Online

In an interview with MTV, Luke Evans (Bard the Bowman) discusses how he was cast in The Hobbit. It turns out it was done online with his video being submitted over the internet. He also talked about where he was when he received the good news which was apparently nearly a year ago which shows how much planning (and secrets) has gone into The Hobbit production.

SDCC: Luke Evans Talks The Hobbit

While promoting Immortal, Luke Evans talked briefly about his casting as Bard for The Hobbit films with Collider. He will be filming his role starting next week for up to a year indicating that his role is significantly expanded from the brief, but pivotal, role the character had in the novel.

Do you have more swords and sandals films in you?
EVANS: Yes. I’m just about to start a very, very big one – The Hobbit. There are no sandals, though. I don’t know what we’re in, but I don’t think there will be any sandals.

You haven’t started working on the film yet?
EVANS: No, I fly down next week. I start in a week’s time, and I’m there for a year.

It seems like Peter Jackson just keeps adding to that cast.EVANS: No more. No, that’s it. Me, Barry Humphries, Evangeline Lilly and Benedict Cumberbatch were the final four. Everything else was cast.

How overwhelming is it to take on something of that scope?EVANS: Yeah, it’s big. It’s really big. It’s not overwhelming to the point of being terrifying, but it is quite a big thing. I’m about to become part of a piece of cinematic history, whether I like it or not. This is a big movie and I’m working with a director that is probably one of the best directors around today. He’s the most respected director in the world. He’s carrying these two movies and shooting them straight after each other. It’s taking him two years to shoot. The whole thing is epic, and I’m going to be part of it. I’m really excited. I can’t wait. I’ve got to just finish this film, and then go and sort it out and be real focused.

Jackson Announces Two More Cast Members

Sir Peter Jackson has added a new entry to his official Facebook page confirming the casting of two actors and announcing the addition of two more. To sum, he confirms the casting of Luke Evans as Bard and Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug (but not the Necromancer). As for the new additions, Lost's Evangeline Lilly has joined as Tauriel a Woodland Elf (not a character in the book) while Barry Humphries (Finding Nemo) will do the motion capture and voice for the CGI Goblin King.

Yikes! I can finally get back to some postings! We've finished our first block of shooting and moved straight into location scouting. More on that soon... But today, I'm thrilled to announce two new cast members who will be joining us for our second block of shooting.

Luke Evans Joins The Hobbit Cast

Peter Jackson has found his Bard. Deadline is reporting that Luke Evans has signed on to play Bard the Grim for The Hobbit. In the novel, the character has a small but pivotal role in the battle against Smaug the Dragon but that role could have been expanded for the movies. At this point most of the major novel roles have been filled leaving only the voice of Smaug. That role really doesn't have to be filled until post-production but Deadline says that Bill Nighy (Underworld) is the frontrunner.