With the public screenings now on in New Zealand and England and a day away in the U.S. and Canada, it seems a good time to continue to celebrate Hobbit Week and share some of the footage we gathered on the red carpet in Wellington, New Zealand. And this time instead of speaking to the media in general, they are speaking directly to you, the community that makes up TheOneRing.net. We have saved this footage for just the right time but here in the states it feels like ‘Hobbit Eve’ and there hasn’t been a lull in the media for weeks so it is now or never! Hope you enjoy some short visits and appearances by Adam Brown, Andy Serkis, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, James Cameron, John Callen, Mark Hadlow, Martin Freeman, Peter Hambleton, Richard Armitage, Stephen Hunter and William Kircher. Enjoy!
Category: Peter Hambleton
Courtesy of Warner Bros Belgium, here is an amazing 13-minute look into The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It features behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage and many, many other key cast and crew members where they discuss the inspiration for, and direction of, the story the first film reveals. Plus there’s plenty of new, previously unseen (at least by me!) sneak previews of what you’ll see on the big screen! So I guess I’ll add: spoilers! Continue reading “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – 13-minute TV special!”
- Aidan Turner
- Alan Lee
- Andy Serkis
- Cate Blanchett
- Christopher Lee
- Dean O'Gorman
- Elijah Wood
- Graham McTavish
- Hobbit Movie
- Ian McKellen
- James Nesbitt
- John Callen
- John Howe
- John Rawls
- Ken Stott
- Mark Hadlow
- Martin Freeman
- Peter Hambleton
- Peter Jackson
- Philippa Boyens
- Production
- Richard Armitage
- Richard Taylor
- Sylvester McCoy
- The Hobbit
Only hours before the stars walked the red carpet in front of 100,000 fans on the street of Wellington, nearly the entire cast gathered at Te Papa Museum for a pair of press conferences.
Peter Jackson and stars Richard Armitage and Martin Freeman attended both press events while most of the rest of the principal cast and screenwriter Philippa Boyens attended one event or the other.
Media was invited by Warner Bros., the studio that was handling press from around the world during the week. TheOneRing.net was included in the press invite, not the only online fan site to get the call, as our friends from herr-der-ringe were also there. MGM and New Line were also announced as presenting the press conferences.
Te Papa, a world-class museum, arranged a long table for the events and switched name cards in front of native Maori art. Called a Marae, translated as “big house” but serving as the symbolic center of Maori tradition, the event started with singing and then a forehead-to-forehead welcome to the participants. With the unique and beautiful colors behind, each of the question and answer sessions lasted about 40 minutes and was moderated.
Flash photography was not allowed, although clearly TheOneRing took quite a few stills. In the back of the room rows of cameras shot video, including for TORn. We audio recorded the event as well and hope to present a transcript of it in a day or two. Meanwhile enjoy some of the best handful of photos. The participants included: Cate Blanchette, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Mark Hadlow, Stephen Hunter, Peter Hambleton William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Graham McTavish, Andy Serkis and Elijah Wood.
With the help of a group of Dwarves and New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Keys, the Green Dragon officially opened for business Thursday. Located on the Hobbiton Movie Set near small-town Matamata, New Zealand, visitors can now have some ale as part of their visiting to the fully immersive movie immersion.
Press from around the globe were on hand for a full day showcase of what the site has to offer as they dispersed from the World Premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in Wellington, New Zealand the previous day.
Keys cut the chains on the door as the Alexander family, who owns the sheep farm the set is built on, welcomed him and the new addition to the set tour with the help of the actors who played dwarves in the latest Middle-earth film. Dean O’Gorman, Aiden Turner, Adam Brown, James Nesbit, John Callen, Stephen Hunter, Jed Brophy, Mark Hadlow, William Kircher, Peter Hambleton and Graham McTavish were all on hand for photos at the door and media interviews around the Hobbiton setting. Royd Tolkien was also in attendance along with key figures from the farm and New Zealand tourism.
Visitors were then treated to New Zealand’s finest wines, tasty snacks and cheeses and of course, ale. Several of the dwarves wore matching rings and revealed that just as the original Fellowship of actors in the LOTR movies all were tattooed together, this group, including lead Martin Freeman all share these specially crafted rings.
Hadlow summed it up, calling the rings a symbol of the actor’s brotherhood.
Please enjoy a few pictures from the event and from the Red Carpet the previous day.
Note: Correspondent Larry D. Curtis is in New Zealand but is having computer failures. Expect much more content in the days to come.
Discussion board member Ataahua comes through for us again with a cool online feature from the New Zealand Herald where you can see just how much The Hobbit actors have been transformed for their roles by makeup and prosthetics. Just drag the slider across each photo to see the actor transform into the character. Check it out and have fun! Read More…
While visiting Wellington in New Zealand, Prince Charles – who is here for the Queen’s diamond jubilee tour – made a stop over at Weta Workshop, where he meet Sir Peter Jackson and Sir Richard Taylor, and Dori (Mark Hadlow), who makes a special request of the Prince. Watch below!
Prince Charles clearly enjoyed his time at Weta Workshop; it made an unusual part of his 64th birthday celebrations, which he also spent with 64 New Zealanders who shared the same birthday. You can read more about the Prince’s visit to Wellington here, here and here (if you look closely at that last article, you may notice some interesting concept art and some familiar faces on the wall behind Prince Charles and Peter Hambleton!) Thanks to all the Ringers who emailed us about this news!