If you’re a die hard fan of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth adaptations, chances are you probably know the name Joe Letteri. Winner of four Academy Awards, Mr. Letteri has been an instrumental part of bringing the magical world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books to life through the art of visual effects.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominations
for the 86th Annual Academy Awards this morning, and The Desolation of Smaug received 3 nods.
Best Sound MixingChristopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony JohnsonBest Sound EditingBrent BurgeBest Visual EffectsJoe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
This past Thursday night, the Visual Effects branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences met to vote for the five VFX nominees at this year’s Oscars. As expected, voters were highly impressed by the frontrunners Gravity and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. But the fellow potential nominees were no slouches either. Presentations of the special effects work behind Pacific Rim, World War Z, and others left quite an impression as well. Continue reading “‘Smaug’ Visual Effects wow at Academy Awards bake-off”
LOS ANGELES — TheOneRing.net covered all kinds of events this week surrounding the World Premiere of “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” None was more exciting than the film’s red (black) carpet experience where the stars can greet fans and walk the press line to talk about the film.
Many clips end up on news and entertainment websites but we bring you an edited version with our own Happy Hobbits behind the microphones and in front of the stars including Martin Freeman, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, William Kircher, Dean O’Gorman, Aidan Turner, Philippa Boyens, Manu Bennett, Ryan Gage, Sean Astin, Ed Sheeran and the already-famous pinch from Benedict Cumberbatch.
Join the team from Life Flight at The Embassy on the opening weekend of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug for a special charity screening supporting Life Flight. Book here.
William Kircher (who plays Bilfur the Dwarf) and Joe Letteri ONZM (Weta Senior Visual Effects Supervisor for The Hobbit) will be attending and there’ll be an exclusive Q&A session with four-time Oscar winner Joe before the film.
Embassy Theatre, 10 Kent Terrace, Wellington
Friday 13 December 2013
Event begins 5.15pm. Film starts 6.05pm
Cost: $30 (includes 3D glasses)
Life Flight receives $9.50 from every ticket sold
The 3D film is the second in a trilogy of movies adapting the ever-popular masterpiece The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug continues the adventure of Bilbo Baggins as he journeys with the wizard Gandalf and thirteen dwarves on an epic quest to reclaim the lost dwarf kingdom of Erebor.
The new Gollum in The Hobbit is technologically updated from the LOTR trilogy.Our own staffer Justin brought this excellent chat between Stuff magazine and Weta Digital’s Joe Letteri to light. Letteri discusses some of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and the challenges of shooting in 3D at 48 fps, but he also has some interesting things to say about Smaug.
Letteri on Smaug: “Really, we could’ve done Smaug in the traditional way – just ask Benedict Cumberbatch to come into a voice booth and record his dialogue, and do everything entirely with keyframe animation. But when we record what Benedict’s body is doing, it frees him up to give us some idea of the physicality and intimate the poses, so that what he’s got on his mind can come through in how he’s performing it – and we’ll take that and extend it into what we do with the dragon.”
Letteri on revisiting Gollum: “I don’t think so – it’s not something that Peter’s ever indicated that he was interested in doing, and for my mind I’m happy to just have the film be finished as a film. We were lucky to be able to come back and do Gollum now with what we know ten years later – we have the best of both worlds, we can do that in new scenes. But even if that hadn’t been the case, I’m inclined to say a film exists in and of its time – and if you want to see something new, go and make a new film.”
You can read the rest of the excellent article right here!
If you’re a die hard fan of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth adaptations, chances are you probably know the name Joe Letteri. Winner of four Academy Awards, Mr. Letteri has been an instrumental part of bringing the magical world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books to life through the art of visual effects.
Join the team from Life Flight at The Embassy on the opening weekend of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug for a special charity screening supporting Life Flight. 