Hobbit Desolation of Smaug PosterThe 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 Mixing
Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
 
Best Sound Editing
Brent Burge
 
Best Visual Effects
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
 

Congratulations to the nominees! The ceremony will be held on March 2nd. Continue reading “‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ nominated for 3 Oscars”

moneyWith all the rumours running around the interwebs lately about the latest Hobbit law suit and the claim that it could scuttle the release of The Hobbit: There and Back Again. We asked attorney Douglas C. Kane, who posts here on TORn as Voronwë the Faithful on our Message boards, if there was any truth to these rumours.

Continue reading “Could the final Hobbit film be scrapped or delayed because of recent litigation? Not a chance”

Academy Of Motion Pictures And Sciences' 2009 Governors Awards Gala - ArrivalsFilm Producer Saul Zaentz has passed away at the age of 92. Many Tolkien fans will know him as the man who held the film rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings – but he was so much more: a true Hollywood legend, with countless film projects to his name. He won many Oscars, including Best Picture wins for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The English Patient, and my very favorite film of all time (perhaps with the exception of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) – Amadeus. Continue reading “Academy Award winning Producer Saul Zaentz dies at age 92”

Smaug WETA Temp CoverDue to be released
on April 1 (no, not an April fools joke), the new book Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon comes from the same wonderful team behind the three The Hobbit: Chronicles books. This release will be 96 pages, exploring the creation of the title character of the second Hobbit film from concept art to digital realization. Final cover art is not yet available, but you can order the book on Weta’s website as well as Amazon.com and other online book stores. Continue reading “‘Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon’ now available for pre-order on Amazon.com”

THE HOBBIT_ AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY-1 Better logoWhile this probably isn’t a distinction that anybody involved with the film would be particularly happy about, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has topped 2013’s list of most pirated movies. According to TorrentFreak, the film was illegally downloaded on BitTorrent networks an estimated 8.4 million times. Coming in at second & third place were Django Unchained and Fast and Furious 6, with 8.1 and 7.9 million downloads respectively. Continue reading “‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ is 2013’s most pirated film”

Bilbo DwarvesAs many of you know, The Lord of the Rings films have long been running on TNT – and that tradition will continue with The Hobbit. Last year, the network nabbed the rights for An Unexpected Journey (due to air in 2015), and now they have ensured that the next chapter in Peter Jackson’s adaptation will air the following year. Continue reading “‘The Desolation of Smaug’ to air on TNT in 2016”