What strikes me as odd is that Aidan Turner looks more Dwarvish in that "civilian" photo than in his "Dwarf make-up".
It's the beard... With dwarves, it's always the beard... ETA to quote this: So we're in agreement, then. 'Tis not only Thorin who's an utter badass, 'tis Armitage himself. Cheers, Lauré
Just remember, the Matamata set is Hobbit sized, not human sized, so it's probably stand-in. This is me in front of Bag End in 2005:
Totally unrelated article about the delay of the series Sherlock, but with the best tongue-in-cheek reference to the Hobbit trilogy so far: Cheers, Lauré
The premier buildup begins... http://www.3news.co.nz/John-Campbell-aboard-The-Hobbit-plane/tabid/817/articleID/278304/Default.aspx http://www.3news.co.nz/Weta-general-manager-Tim-Launder/tabid/367/articleID/278307/Default.aspx http://www.3news.co.nz/Hobbit-fans-...miere/tabid/367/articleID/278305/Default.aspx
Nice image of some of the cast and crew posed in front of the Hobbit themed 777-300 ahead of the premiere. EDIT: My favourite bit? McCoy with an umbrella. If only it had a red handle.
I see Armitage is looking his usual dapper self, sans beard this time, in what appears to be a casual three-piece suit. Damn, but I'm starting to think it's utterly impossible to photograph him from a so-called "bad angle". *sighs* Cheers, Lauré
Security seems airtight on reviews so far. Jackson went out of his way to bribe all the fan sites into compliance with juicy exclusives and so on.
Awesome set of new posters for the IMAX midnight screening. I can't possibly be the only one who sees shades of Aragorn in Thorin, now, can I? Cheers, Lauré
Ugh, who did the lettering?! It's absolutely hideous - not only it doesn't respect the elegant symmetry of Tengwar (if you wanted to have a "rough" look, you should've used the Dwarvish runes - it would fit more with the film), but the transcription is also incorrect.
Well, my take on it is that it's Bilbo attempting to write in Elvish. Sort of how you don't get where to put the accents in Spanish when you first learn it, or how hard the Arabic alphabet is to learn for those used ot the Latin one. The film is, after all, about a Hobbit venturing out of the comforts of home and coming into contact with all sorts of unknown cultures (Dwarves and Elves), and I find interesting that the writing of the title itself reflects that curious blend of insecurity (the mistakes) and daring (the fact that he wrote them anyway). Fridge Logic or Fridge Brilliance, I don't know... but I thought I'd throw my theory out there anyway. Cheers, Lauré
Nope, still don't like it. The impression I'm getting is "Tengwar, but made to look like the Harry Potter logo". Awful, awful choice.
It's a raw money grab, that's for sure. But it will be very good at it. I was just thinking that the Hobbit will likely be the first non James Cameron movie to make $1 billion dollars outside the U.S. $1.5 billion total or better, although it likely will not outgross Avengers in the U.S. In total, I think Hobbit will give Avengers a run for its money.
When I get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning to work a 12-hour day, that too will be a "raw money grab". This of course reduces the entirety of human endeavor to the form of a paycheck.
I'm looking forward to the Hobbit movies, and I've always agreed with you, Merlin, that we don't need a better definition of professional or commercial art than "an attempt to entertain people and make some money." But sometimes we can wish that the money and the art was balanced a little bit differently. I don't necessarily believe I'm getting more entertainment value by seeing the Hobbit stretched out over three movies instead of two. Two movies would have been ideal from a narrative point of view. One movie up to or through Mirkwood. And the next movie focused on the Misty Mountain and Smaug. Whatever ancillary materials Jackson had to add to stretch this to three movies can only confuse the narrative. Telling too many backstories and side stories may dilute the focus of adapting one of the all-time great children's stories for cinema. As a Tolkien fan, I'm interested by that stuff, but as a Hobbit fan and a movie fan, I want to see a focused narrative suited for motion pictures. Unfortunately, the LOTR movie trilogy wasn't perfect. ROTK suffered from bloat and was seriously overbaked. But I still enjoyed all three movies and consider the theatrical release of FOTR a masterpiece. Likewise, I'm confident I'll enjoy all three Hobbit movies, but am not very optimistic that any of them will really reach the heights of Fellowship.
