Hey folks, Harry here... We were lucky enough today to have a 1 hour look with Peter Jackson and Nori (Jed Brophy) at the studio down in New Zealand. First Peter took the audience on a tour of the facility, where we saw Motion Capture work that tells us that Azog will be in the new middle film. Actor Manu Bennett was there with another performer shooting arrows. If I were to hazard a guess, this would most likely be a sequence where Beorn goes to check on the Dwarves & Gandalf's story and has a battle. At least that would make sense from a Book stand point, but then Peter is doing his own thing here.
After the Mo-Cap stage, Peter took us up some stairs where he and Jed Brophy did a lot a winking and nudging regarding THE DAMBUSTERS 6-Sheet - and Jed told Peter that somebody should remake it and Peter said Jed should be in it - and they were in high happy agreement about it all. Personally, I'm dying to experience Peter's take on the skipping bombs! Then it was off to pre-vis - where they tried to make us think that SMAUG would look like a HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON dragon. Before Peter said, "You really didn't think we were going to show you Smaug did you?"
Through the passageways we get glimpses at Peter's hallway of James Bond classic 6-sheet and 3-sheet movie posters - Peter Jackson is a huge Bond freak - and personally I'd love to see Peter get to do BOND 25. Bond vs Bastards!
Ok - so then Peter enters the Editting Suite - and we see that he has a 3 Sheet for JASON & THE ARGONAUTS and a ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. with Racquel Welch. That poster apparently hung on Peter's wall when he was a kid. Funny, I had a one sheet hanging on my childhood wall. When the video opened you could see his collection of Harryhausen 3 sheets and a statue of Harryhausen. All evidence of Peter's fine taste in my book.
Well in the editing room, Peter and Jed joined Pete's Editor Jabez Olsen.- and they began to get to the heart of what this special Fan look was all about. Answering YouTube & Twitter questions, having LOTR & Hobbit Participants send in questions and well wishes... in all, it was very joyous.
We got a peek at Mirkwood. We got to go to that place that the sword that got Galadriel all freaked out came from, with Gandalf and Radagast. Thus we get conclusive proof that while the Dwarves and Bilbo are stuck in Mirkwood - that we will definitely be cutting from that to the goings ons of Gandalf and The Necromancer. Meanwhile, in Mirkwood - we got to see webbed Dwarves, we got to see more of Lee Pace's Thrandull, he's that Elf that was riding that big antlered riding animal looking down upon the Erebor Dwarves and then turned their back? Well, he's the bastard Elf King that captures the Dwarves after the escape from the Spiders of Mirkwood. We saw Thrandull upon his throne. We saw him talking with his son, Legolas aka Orlando Bloom. And we got introduced to Evangeline Lilly's Tauriel, a redheaded elf bodyguard to Thrandull - and a created character for the film. She looked awesome btw.
We also got to see Luke Evans' Bard the Bowman - and Stephen Fry's Master of Laketown. As well as much of Laketown, which is a very rustic Venice. I loved the production design of this place. It's gonna get all fucked up. Can't wait. We saw Barrells - but we did not yet see SMAUG or Cumberbatch... nor did we see any of Mikael Persbrandt's BEORN or BEORN's Hall. But we know they'll be in the film.
We did get to see some of Martin Freeman's Bilbo in the Treasure room. But no SMAUG - until the very end of the broadcast where we heard a proper SMAUG sound that sent shivers. Peter showed production art - and the scene with Gandalf and Radagast in a place that no light should ever be cast was wonderful. OK time for THE HOBBIT in 3D again.
OH - here's a couple glimpses I snapped for y'all.
First is an exterior piece of production art for the Woodland Realm of the Elves of Mirkwood:
And here's an interior image - the bridges and stairs are carved from the roots of the Mirkwood Trees that this Realm is carved out of!
Hey folks, Harry here... If you have the BluRay for THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY - then you know that at 3pm EST today, THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG preview with Peter Jackson is about to get underway. You go to: www.thehobbit.com/sneak and enter your Ultraviolet code - and you'll get this screen:
