Bilbo Enters Erebor
Bilbo and Balin are in a hallway just past the Secret Door. Balin is instructing Bilbo to find and take the Arkenstone, and is giving him a description of it. He describes it as a “large, white jewel” and Bilbo will know it when he sees it.
[Demosthenes: Bilbo seems a little sceptical of this jewel. He asks, questioningly, “You want me to find a jewel?” and Balin replies something along the lines of “Not just any jewel.”]
As they approach the entrance to the main hall, Balin tells Bilbo that it’s okay if he doesn’t want to go through with it. Bilbo musters up his courage and says that he “must” after coming this far. Balin smiles warmly as Howard Shore’s Shire Theme begins to play. He tells Bilbo that he is always amazed by the courage of Hobbits, and wishes him luck… but not before unnerving Bilbo by warning him to be very silent if he happens to come across a live dragon. Before Bilbo can ask any follow-up questions, Balin disappears back down the hallway. Bilbo is on his own.
Bilbo nervously enters the main hall, and head-slappingly calls out “Hello?” When he doesn’t get a response (and what on Earth would he have done if he did?), he assumes Smaug is gone, and proceeds to enter the gold-filled hall of Erebor.
[Demosthenes: Freeman mutters nervously “Not at home. (the title of one of the chapters from The Hobbit) Good. Good.” I liked the fact that it felt unnpolished, like something a normal person would say rather than a line of dialogue.]
Bilbo stumbles across the enormous piles of gold and jewels. He does his best to be quiet, but every step creates an echoing series of jangles. He tries to find what Balin described, looking at several different large gemstones. He carelessly throws one away, resulting in a large crash that would have made Pippin proud. Again we see him “Martin Freeman-ing” a bit as he tries to make his way through the gold.
[Demosthenes: as he picks through this vast hill of gold that spreads across the entire hall he says,, somewhat sarcastically, “Arkenstone. A large, white jewel. Very helpful.”]
Eventually, he finds a golden cup and picks it up. This loosens a big pile of gold coins. As they slide away, they reveal Smaug’s eye underneath. It is closed, and Smaug is asleep. In a truly tense scene, Bilbo does his best to remain quiet as he inches slowly away from the dragon. He turns around and sees part of Smaug’s tail poking out of the gold a good distance away. The dragon is massive, and Bilbo only now realizes just what he has gotten himself into.
As much as Bilbo tries to be quiet, he is still surrounded by loose gold and jewels, and soon the noises cause Smaug to stir. We see his eye open. Bilbo hides himself from the dragon, but the damage is done. Smaug is awake. Slowly, he begins to lift himself up. And as the gold and jewels begin to spill away…
Cut to black. Cue audience screaming.
This was an incredible collection of footage, and I can say that I am more excited about this film than I was before…if that’s even possible! December 13th can’t come fast enough!
[Demosthenes: quick answers to the obvious questions. No Beorn. Nothing from Dol Guldur except the bits we saw in the new production blog — pickups part 1. Expect this black-out on those two areas to continue up until the film. If we’re lucky, pickups part 2 might give us something from Lake-town itself? That’s just a guess though. A finall oddity: the official press release I was handed today by Roadshow NZ’s folk still doesn’t list either Stephen Fry or Conan Stevens. I didn’t get a chance to ask about it, but it’s really confusing because there’s no way the film can reach Erebor without the Company encountering with the Master of Lake-town first, surely?]
