Ringer Morgan tells us that Daniel Reeve the calligrapher and mapmaker from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit will be signing copies of his maps and chatting about his involvement in the films at the Weta Cave in Miramar (Wellington) this Sunday.

As well, Weta conceptual designer Greg Broadmore will be signing copies of his over-the-top steampunk extravaganza Dr Grordbort presents: TRIUMPH — unnecessarily violent tales of science fiction adventure for the simple and unfortunate on next Wednesday. Apparently there will be “a splendid high tea” as well. Entry is free.

In true retro-steampunk style, Broadmore’s alter-ego Dr Grordbort has declared: “attendance compulsory on penalty of flogging!”. Be there, or be on the run I guess!

Weta Cave artist signing details:

Daniel Reeve: Sunday July 22, 1pm to 3pm.
Greg Broadmore: Wednesday July 25, 6pm to 7pm.

Ringer Kellyduck sends us this link to what appears to be a substantial partial transcript of the press conference the Hobbit crew gave at Comic-Con last weekend.

I don’t think this is the entire press conference, but it is certainly a substantial part. We also now have some partial video too. (Sorry folks, I know you all want it to see it, but there’s still no showreel footage.)

At the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con, Peter Jackson — joined by The Hobbit cast members Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis, Ian McKellen, and Richard Armitage — said there are other parts of Tolkien’s stories he’d like to be able to tell. Sitting down for a small press conference after the Hall H presentation, Jackson talked about his hopes for shooting more footage. Along with his cast, Jackson discussed revisiting the world he brought to the screen in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, technological advances, and the 48 frames per second debate.

Choice quote from Martin Freeman: I was struck by just how emotional people were talking about the film, talking about anticipating the film. With each question came a preamble about what the previous films have meant in people’s lives. So all cliches aside, it’s a really nice thing to be part of something that actually touches people, genuinely touches people. It’s quite a lovely thing.

MrCere breaking in here. I was planning to report this whole press conference but real life, travel and DragonCon have prevented it and now this transcript is here, so anything I write seems less useful to readers now. The transcript isn’t word-for-word, it has removed the “uhms” and a similar words so the quotes are cleaned up, but it is accurate and easier to read this way. The questions are much more cleaned up. For example: The first one was mine and I said I would love to hear the response from the panel about Hall H, especially from those who were there for the first time. Martin Freeman spoke up, answered then the moderator moved on. (I especially wanted to also hear from Richard Armitage since we talked about things like Comic-Con while in New Zealand but sadly the moment was lost.) Anyway, I didn’t listen to the whole recording but it seems complete to me. Oh, but I do have some photos after the break.

[Partial transcript | [Partial video] | [TORn’s Ultimate Round-up] Continue reading “Comic-Con ‘Hobbit’ press conference transcript”

In this One News report Richard Taylor, Pietro Marson and Rod Sheeny (Weta Workshop Animatronics) talk about how Weta Workshop is using 3D printers to make weapons and props for The Hobbit and the Lord of The Rings trilogy.

Animatronics engineer, Rod Sheehy, says that the printing technology is an advantage because it keeps costs down with the items made in-house, saving a lot of time and Taylor says that they’ve used the tech to make helmets, sword hilts and axes. Thanks to Ringer Marc for the heads-up!

So over the last 24 to 48 hours, there’s only been about half a billion articles posted across the interwebs about the Hall H presentation. Then add an equal number of video interviews that Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen and Richard Armitage have been doing about The Hobbit.

Talk about feast or famine!

So without further ado, here’s a round-up of the latest ones, and a bit of a summary for many of the articles to help you decide what to read or watch.

Bootnote: big props to everyone who has been sending in links to spymaster at theonering dot net — you’re all ace! And be sure to drop us a line if you think you have a scoop about the production — we’d love to hear from you!

Now updated! with press conference video footage!

SPOILER WARNING!
Continue reading “TORn’s ultimate Comic-Con 2012 round-up!”

In case you don’t have much bandwidth, or can’t get to Youtube for whatever reason, here’s a complete transcript of the Hobbitcon Q&A from Hall H. Quick warning: it does have some swearing at the end when Andy Serkis shows off his Gollum voice for the audience. And it does contain some spoilers. Some great answers from Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage to questions about the prosthetic gear, from Peter Jackson about how the Extended Edition process works, and some interesting stuff from Philippa Boyens about Galadriel.

Thanks to the swift typing skills of Barliman’s chat regular Jenniearcheo in putting this together! Also, if you want to view another version of the panel in higher quality, head here. The video quality is better and it has the last three minutes of the panel that was not in the previous version we saw. However, it’s from further back in the hall so the sound suffers a touch. Thanks to Elpidha for the find! Continue reading “Full transcript of Comic-Con Hobbit Panel Q&A!”

Here’s a recording of the Q&A panel from Hall H. Please note that it does not include the showreel footage — it is only the question and answer session.

Still we very strongly suggest you go watch the thing right away. Because if you wait, it might well go the way of the very cool Andy Serkis video snippet that we posted earlier!

Warning: POSSIBLE SPOILERS!