Originally, Peter Jackson intended his adaptation of The Hobbit to be a two-film effort — a duology.
We’ll never know for certain how it would have turned out, but in this feature TORn writer Captain Salt brings together the known facts to give us some idea of just how it might have shaped up.
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Preview night at San Diego Comic Con is just that, a 3 hour preview of the show, with the Exhibitor’s hall open, and several sneak peeks of upcoming network Pilot shows for the Fall Season of new television. There are no panels or major presentations going on, just the room screening the pilots (no guests) and the gigantic exhibit hall. Here you see an image of the side approach to the WETA booth from a bit of a distance, just look for Gandalf watching over everyone. Continue reading “SDCC Wednesday Preview night Recap”
Ringer RedOrmTheViking offers some intriguing analysis of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. He proposes that Rob Kazinsky, who was originally slated to play the role of Fili, actually appears on screen once during the Misty Mountains song sequence at the beginning of the film. However, because he’s mostly in shadow and because the focus, as the camera pans around the corner and into the room, is Thorin Oakenshield with his pipe, Kazinsky’s Fili is easy to overlook.
RedOrmTheViking’s analysis is directly below, with my comments afterwards.
BRITISH actor Rob Kazinsky was originally cast in the role of Fili for The Hobbit films. He can be seen on the first production v-log walking around the Bag End set with other members of the cast during the “blocking” phase of pre-production.
A couple of months after the release of the first production v-log, Kazinsky dropped out of the film just as principal photography began, citing personal reasons. The role would ultimately be filled by New Zealand actor Dean O’Gorman.
Rob Kazinsky at Bag End. However, if my suspicions are correct, it appears that one single shot of Kazinsky as Fili made it into the final cut of the film, and it’s when the dwarves begin to sing the Misty Mountains song in Bag End. This is the shot in question (with the brightness kicked up a few notches).
Go back and watch that scene. Fili is the only dwarf in the entire company whose face you don’t see throughout the whole singing sequence. All of the other dwarves are accounted for, and seen very clearly except for Fili, who we only “see” in this single shot.
We know from the early v-logs that the Unexpected Party scenes were the first to be filmed with the dwarf cast. We also know that Kazinsky had already filmed a few scenes as Fili before dropping out of the film. From what little we can see of his face, it’s pretty clearly not Dean O’Gorman.
It’s likely that Jackson cut around showing Kazinsky s Fili for the scene, and in this one particular shot, digitally enhanced the shadows on him to hide his face so our focus is solely on Thorin. Dean O’Gorman was cast not too long after Kazinsky left, allowing Jackson to finish the remaining scenes in Bag End featuring Fili.
Thorin sings the Misty Mountains song with Fili in the foreground on the left. Note the similarity in the shape and length of the nose to the previous photo of Rob Kazinsky above.
I found it interesting since — to date — there have been no known images (official or unofficial) released of Kazinsky as Fili.
I should point out that I only managed to spot this after watching The Hobbit blu-ray on a 1080p screen, where it is much more noticeable.
Dem here. I did a couple of things in checking through this to see if it holds water.
First, I rifled through the credits as listed on IMDB, and also examined the actual list of film credits courtesy of someone who seems to have filmed them in-cinema. Kazinsky does not seem to be listed on either. I know that folks are sometimes not credited for various reasons, but IMDB already has a list of uncredited people for AUJ and Kazinsky is not among them. And I realise that IMDB is not always a poster child for reliability, but it’s something to keep in mind.
The next thing I did was to watch the scene (you can do it too — I’ve embedded youtube video of the scene at the bottom) and count all the dwarfs. And indeed, to one extent or another, the camera does linger over each of the other dwarves. Primarily it’s Thorin, Kili, Balin and Dwalin. But all the company get camera time (Oin probably gets the least). More importantly, and in stark contrast to the shadowed Fili, they’re each in full, bright light.
Lastly, I took my own screencap. Mine, from a slightly more front-on angle shows a tiny bit more of Fili’s facial features, though i haven’t gone to the effort of brightening it. Then I started hunting round the internet for a few differentprofilephotos of Dean O’Gorman as Fili for the sake of comparison. My own opinion is that the individual half-hidden in the shadows in the AUJ doesn’t really resemble O’Gorman. I feel that the brows and the bridge of the nose, and the nose itself seem too dissimilar for it to be O’Gorman.
Fili and Thorin at Bag End. A slightly better angle. Screencap taken from the clip below.
But you might not agree; it’s certainly not absolutely conclusive! Food for thought anyhow.
Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun!
IGN.com has a great video interview with the dwarven cast of ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ that is well worth 8 minutes of your time today. Watch the company squibble and squirm as they try to answer a variety of Tolkien trivia. In-between the humorous answers, you’ll see some great clips from the film. (Who knew Galadriel was the name of Gandalf’s sword? 😛 ) Enjoy! [Video]
He may not be at Comic-Con, and the only Hobbit content is from TheOneRing.net, but Peter Jackson knows that fans are salivating for more on the two Hobbit movies and wow has he delivered. From the set he leads viewers through memories from cast and crew of the first segment of shooting including a surprise vet in the final shot. Enjoy!.
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Originally, Peter Jackson intended his adaptation of The Hobbit to be a two-film effort — a duology. 
Ringer RedOrmTheViking offers some intriguing analysis of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. He proposes that Rob Kazinsky, who was originally slated to play the role of Fili, actually appears on screen once during the Misty Mountains song sequence at the beginning of the film. However, because he’s mostly in shadow and because the focus, as the camera pans around the corner and into the room, is Thorin Oakenshield with his pipe, Kazinsky’s Fili is easy to overlook. 
