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!”

Ringer Maya sends us this report from today’s signing at the Weta Cave.

The queues were especially long this afternoon at Weta Cave. The cave is usually rather busy and packed with tourists, movie fans, Tolkien fans and other enthusiastic visitors, but today was exception even in busy times’ standards. Like many others, I too arrived at the cave today, my own wee elfling in tow, willing to brave the long queue especially to meet illustrator Alan Lee and to have him sign our copy of The Hobbit 2013 Official Calendar.

It was such a delight to find out that John Howe, the other major illustrator on the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies was there as well! Continue reading “Report: Alan Lee and John Howe at the Weta Cave”

The 2013 Tolkien calendar naturally features ‘The Hobbit’ this year including the work of Alan Lee and John Howe. To celebrate, the Weta Cave in Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand will host Lee this Sunday to sign this and others of his works.

Lee and Howe have been working on concept art for Peter Jackson’s three-part ‘Hobbit’ movie, headed for a mid-December release but found time to produce some new work for this calendar.

The calendar features 14 paintings, including some created exclusively for this calendar by Alan Lee and John Howe, the two artists whose work has defined the look of Middle-earth over the last 25 years.

This is their first-ever collaboration since the official Tolkien Calendar began publishing 40 years ago.

Each month depicts one of the most famous scenes from The Hobbit, including Bilbo outside Bag End, Smaug the Dragon, the Great Goblin and Bilbo’s Front Hall. As well as classic illustrations from bo
th artists’ celebrated portfolios, the 2013 calendar includes brand new paintings, created by John Howe and Alan Lee exclusively for this calendar.

When: Sunday 9 September, 1-3 pm
Where: The Weta Cave, Miramar, Wellington

A range of Alan’s other titles including The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook will also be available in store. For more details including a map, click here.

You’ve probably already seen the that fabulous picture of Thorin holding Thrain’s key — the one that they need to get into Erebor.

Now Herr-der-Ringe has a spy image of the artwork.

The keys is exactly the same, but the runes on them seem to be slightly different? Was the artwork an earlier iteration that was subsequently simplified? Maybe it’s the equivalent of text greeking? Any runes experts out there able to help? Potential spoiler warning

[More]

For JRR Tolkien, languages evolved at least in part in reaction to the history of their speakers. Looking at recent photos and screenshots of the cities of Dale and Esgaroth, I was struck by the thought that for Peter Jackson’s design team, Middle-earth history could exert a similar effect on architecture.

Curious how the architectural set design choices for the Hobbit might reflect the history of these two cities, I asked Barliman’s chat regular and archaeologist Jenniearcheo to provide a few professional insights on some of the set images that have found their way onto the internet.

This brief essay is the result. We hope you enjoy it.

Warning: SPOILERS.

Continue reading “Dale and Laketown: the tale of two cities”