Official 'The Hobbit' Thread

[Doctor Jones]

My God... Andy in the suit. A man who is talking on his ****ing phone and I'm excited. There is proof that this movie is actually filming.

 

[Jackasscoley15]

I'm getting deja vu from 2004, when the first set picture of Batman Begins hit the net. I think it was just a picture of some trucks/equipment while they were filming in Iceland, but I remember there being a huge multi-page thread by the end of the day discussing just that picture. Just the proof that it was in production was enough to get everybody excited.

 

[Boom]

Ian McKellen update

Wizard's Re-emergence

Beards and moustaches catch food; they smell, tickle and repel: but they are better than shaving every day, anyday. When I’m not working I avoid shaving — but now a job approaches. Younger fans of LOTR ask if I grew my hair long specially. No, I didn’t; nor did anyone else in the trilogy, all of us in wigs and/or facial hair.

This week, my vacation beard, my holiday hair, grown in India and tended in New Zealand, had to go. Rick Findlater would like as much skin round my face to gum his various hirsute attachments. So I ask if he can find a local barber who can be trusted with a cut-throat razor and start off my shaving/working period with a close one.

That’s how I met Tony at his downtown salon buzzing with an assortment of Wellingtonians; confident schoolboys, shy matrons, city gents, fake blondes and a few whiskery geezers like me. Tony didn’t use a cut-throat but his throw-away blades were aided by hot towels and soothing lotions. Not a nick. Just the tick.

The next day, up the stairs of the make-up trailer, where Rick only took an hour to pop on the wig, the beard the moustache. I and others thought them too short, until photographs of the Fellowship of the Ring proved us wrong. Gandalf’s hair had grown only in our memories. The false nose too looked not quite as we’d remembered. That’s because it wasn’t. I had requested a smaller nose than last time. The WETA sculptors were making new noses anyway, silicone replacing the old sticky gelatine which tended to slide around if the wizard sneezed or shouted.

It’s like old times. Gandy’s clothes are hanging round my trailer and in steps Emma Harre, who dressed me last time, valiant, sporting, reliable and ready to put up once more with my early morning grumps and end-of-day sloth. We giggle as we remember the tricks of the layered costume, the hidden belts and braces. It’s all new, and looking it, and will till broken down. But it fits, even the new hat. I stride over to the Studio smiling. Nothing is unexpected. But next the 3D camera will eye-up the make-up, the costume and, I suppose, the actor.

I’ll let you know.

SOURCE: http://www.mckellen.com/cinema/hobbit-movie/110329.htm

 

[Octoberist]

His writing is always a joy

 

[Jackasscoley15]

TORn Exclusive: Did Master Titi capture Martin Freeman as Bilbo??

Master Titi, the spy that send the set pics exclusive to TheOneRing.net yesterday, has sent in a new batch of images today. In this latest set, we get to see some actors in costume, and in one particular image, it sure looks like he might have captured the first pic of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins! Click on the images below for a larger version and let the conversations begin!

More pics at the link.

 

[Boom]

EDIT: Damn you, Jackass .

There is no way that is William Kircher. I'm positive that is James Nesbitt with prosthetics.

As for the hobbit, I'm pretty sure that isn't Freeman. As far as I can recall, Bilbo's waistcoat is yellow during An Unexpected Party, and then he switches to a red one for the rest of the journey. This hobbit's coat is more of a yellow-green. Plus, as far as I can tell, the face doesn't match Freeman's.

I think it's Ryan Gage (Drogo Baggins) again.

 

[Jackasscoley15]

Yeah, that's definitely James Nesbitt/Bofur. I love the people at TORn, but they're not particularly observant sometimes lol.

 

[Sawyer]

TORn Exclusive: Did Master Titi capture Martin Freeman as Bilbo??

More pics at the link.

Say whaaaaat?

 

[Boom]

I can't figure out what's going on with the top of Nesbitt's head.

 

[Jackasscoley15]

I'm guessing the dark part of his head is his real hair, while a prosthetic forehead is the piece covering the top. He's probably on his way to the makeup trailer so that they can apply the rest of his face and a wig.

 

[Boom]

He sure looks like a heartthrob .

 

[Angel_Faerie]

God I hate that whole "Heartthrob Dwarves" thing.

 

[Boom]

I can wait for that Richard Armitage fansite to lose their **** when PJ uglifies Armitage.

 

[Octoberist]

Peter Jackson dressed up as The Rocketeer at The Roxy's grand opening.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/4829731/Rocketeer-unmasked-as-Peter-Jackson

 

[Thundarr]

Thank God Your Majesty is coming out next week, that'll help tide me over until The Hobbit finally comes out.

 

[Boom]

Ian McKellen Update (The best one yet, in my opinion)

Gandalf is tested

Principal photography of The Hobbit began on 21 March, without me.

Meanwhile, all the characters have been having screen-tests, so that the effect of make-up and costume can be assessed through the camera lens, before shooting begins in earnest and it's too late for corrections.

I’m very sorry to have missed, the other sunny day, the first mass emergence from their trailers and make-up chairs, of not only our 13 heroic dwarves but also their 13 small-scale doubles — shorter, near-identical versions of the principals. Looking at the designs, they are nothing like garden furniture (those are gnomes NOT dwarves). Everyone who saw the first parade of two Thoren Oakenshields plus 24 assorted dwarves was mightily impressed!

With Bilbo already filming, this was final proof that The Hobbit is well and truly underway.

The wizard still had to be tested. So, done up as Gandalf, I’m placed on a floor-mark and asked to walk toward the camera slowly, turning this way and that like a slo-mo model, so everyone can judge from her/his specialist point of view. Everyone includes the director Peter Jackson, who attends, without fuss, to every detail; his fellow-producers and screenplay-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens; make-up chief Peter King; Richard Taylor (with an eye to WETA's sculpted nose); Ann Maskrey, the costume designer.

The original costume I wore in LOTR hangs rather mournfully on a stand by the camera. I can’t wear it in The Hobbit, because it has been noted “of historic status.” Ann has made two changes which few may notice but please me because they revert to Tolkien’s introduction in Fellowship of the Ring, where he mentions a silver scarf and black boots. In the film, a scarf appeared just once, tied to Gandalf's cart at Hobbiton but oddly not thereafter. I now have a substantial, magic-looking silvery scarf to wear and act with and perhaps find some part of its own to play. I've already twisted it into a stylish turban. And, as per JRR Tolkien, below the familiar gown, a new pair of black boots may be spied. They will not look new of course. They are riding boots, the sort that can be pulled on in a hurry. Gandalf is often in a hurry. His previous boots were laced and needed Emma to get on and off. Not good for a wizard on the run. And they were grey not black.

All are nearly content — yet still the nose is not as it was or as it should be, all agree. Why? A book is consulted. A glorious book. I have it at home, with other LOTR treasures, the farewell present from Philippa and the Jackson’s ten years ago. It has 100 photographs, iconic and mischievous, a family album of people rather than places. Gandalf's nose features in a couple of full-page close-ups. What’s different to the way I look now?

Overnight at WETA, close to his Oscars, Richard, who is confident he knows the answer, models a new nose on the plaster cast of my face. It's a little longer on the bridge, less bulbous by the nostrils. Later in the day, Rick sticks it on while I snooze. One glance at the beak in the mirror and off we confidently go to show Peter, who's filming in a cave; Fran and Philippa too. Again the album is consulted. Smiles all round.

31 March
Miramar

A well-wisher on my Facebook page asks what difference it will make, acting in front of a 3D camera for the first time.
Answer: I’ll let you know, when I know.

SOURCE: http://www.mckellen.com/cinema/hobbit-movie/110331.htm

 

[Boom]

I'm really happy to hear about the two changes made to Gandalf's costume. They're subtle, but they bring him that much closer to what Tolkien had envisioned. Hopefully they fixed the thin and, in my opinion, fake-looking beard from FoTR. I'd like to see Gandalf with a thicker beard. Either way, can't wait to see a more-faithful looking Gandalf the Grey .

And I wonder who's cave they're filming in right now .

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Ian writes the best damn blog entries. I can't wait to see some dwarves.

 

[Octoberist]

question: Can Dwarves be taller than Hobbits?

 

[Boom]

The average height of a dwarf is 4'6".

The average height of a hobbit is 3'6".

 

[Marx]

I love Ian's updates.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Jackson's filming in the cave? Awesome.

I also love his updates. Very well written with actual thought put into them. I never even noticed the scarf in FOTR.

 

[Boom]

Ian McKellen Update

SPOILER ALERT!

Today’s news.

It’s now been suggested that the wizard’s wig and beard look too scarily hairy. An aside from me has been noted and so Gandalf in The Hobbit is now going to be bald as Patrick Stewart. So much for the wig. Whether the beard is also to be cut, is not yet revealed.

— Ian McKellen, Wellington, NZ 1 April 2011

Spoiler

Note the date.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Even if it's April Fool's tomorrow, if there is news and it's good, I will still react as if it were real. Stupid me.

 

[GhostPoet]

I hate April Fools