Today, is a huge day! We’ve already gotten the first poster for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and of course today we got the first trailer for the movie.
Well, that’s not the only thing for the new movie that has made an appearance on this very special day.
Weta has just released the first product and it’s a special preview product for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with this mini barrel-riding Bilbo Baggins statue. This statue fits in line with the mini-statues you’ve seen us review here from The Lord of the Rings. It’s the very first mini-statue for The Hobbit trilogy. This will also be the first in a line of barrel-riding pieces leading up to the release of the film in December. Bilbo is in-stock for $65 so get you order in now to enter for a chance to win 65 Weta dollars and add this amazing Bilbo statue to your collection.
The MTV Movie Awards just announced that Bilbo beat out all the other contenders, including Iron Man, The Hulk, Catwoman, Batman, and Snow White, for the coveted “Best Hero” award. A massive fan effort that spanned continents lead to Bilbo’s victory by a margin of more than 100,000 votes. Using the hashtag #votebilbo, fans cast their votes on Twitter and Instagram and forged a dedicated fellowship committed to showing the world that even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
With more than 1.63 million votes, Bilbo was the clear winner, much to the chagrin of legions of Kristen Stewart and Twilight fans who gave our little hobbit a run for the money. In addition to tweeting, fans created thousands of images that they uploaded to Instagram to share their love for our favorite hero. We’ll have a gallery of some of our favorites online soon.
It’s been a true adventure riding the wild voting rollercoaster, and it’s brought many Ringers together and strengthened our community. From #votebilbo, we’re now united under #BilboTheHero. Click to read about how TORn’s MrCere went from thinking this campaign was “harmless but pretty useless,” to wholeheartedly jumping on board the #votebilbo train as, “A funny thing happened during the process: It became really fun on Twitter to #VoteBilbo!”
TORn staffer Saystine found us another great interview video from Yahoo! Movies UK in which Hobbit cast members Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, and Andy Serkis discuss how the second film in the trilogy, The Desolation of Smaug, will differ from An Unexpected Journey.
“It will get more dangerous and dark as Bilbo gets further away from home and in more jeopardy,” says Andy Serkis, who, in addition to playing Gollum in the films, is Second Unit Director on the trilogy.
Will we enjoy the departure from the more lighthearted nature of Unexpected Journey? Well Richard Armitage will, at least. He says, “Obviously I favor the dark.”
Our TORn community all know he’s the bravest little hobbit of them all, but the world needs to know, too! A few days ago, TORn staffer MrCere posted a call to arms. The MTV Movie Awards are asking the public to choose the Best Hero of 2012 using Twitter or Instagram. Our favorite Hobbit, Bilbo, is running neck and neck with (can you believe this?) Snow White. This cannot stand! We need to mobilize our community to show our support for the Master of Bag End.
Use the link above or choose from one of the #votebilbo messages below and tweet your support now! We’ve provided 20 more automatic tweets below. Just click on the vote link and you will be automatically setting up your next tweet. Tweet early, and tweet often. You can also use #votebilbo to share your vote through your Instagram account. MTV says, “Get creative on Instagram—dress up as your favorite hero, tag a selfie, etc. Any photo with the hashtag is a vote, but only the best will be displayed… during the Movie Awards!”
A cool new infographic for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has just become available. This one details each of the key characters from the film, along with a succinct line that gives an insight into the personality of each character.
Still, I must nitpick. Galadriel is not “the oldest of all the Elves in Middle-earth”. At the time of the Third Age, the oldest of the Eldar still in Middle-earth (that we know of), is the Telerin elf, and Lord of the Grey Havens, Cirdan the Shipwright. And we do see Cirdan briefly in the film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings — initially in the prologue sequence where the Three Rings are distributed by Celebrimbor (see here) and then at the end of The Return of the King when he greets the departing Frodo, Gandalf and co as they take ship for Valinor (see that one here). So Cirdan the Shipwright certainly exists in the movie universe.
You can read a little about speculation about the age of Cirdan in this old Greenbooks post by Staffer Turgon. Basically, Cirdan undertook The Great Journey (but stayed in Middle-earth); Galadriel was born in Valinor after the Vanyar, Noldor and some of the Telerin elves finished The Great Journey and reached Aman. Ergo Cirdan is the older of the two.
Anyway, arguments over canon aside, this is cool. Enjoy!
Martin Freeman (Bilbo) and Aidan Turner (Kili) at today's press conference - this cast is a killer combo of wit and good looks.
“Fourteen individuals – and an ensemble.”
Today’s press conference opened with an apology from Peter Jackson, who said he couldn’t be there as he was “under a form of medical house arrest” since being hospitalised with a perforated ulcer last week.
“And to be honest, perhaps it’s just as well. These guys make me laugh so hard that I’d be in danger of popping a stitch or something,” Jackson continued in his statement.
Confirming the truth of that, the cast of 13 dwarves and one hobbit kept up a constant flow of quips and wisecracks throughout the whole press conference. We knew Martin Freeman was funny with a good script – well, he’s hilarious without one as well.
Today, is a huge day! We’ve already gotten the first poster for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and of course today we got the first trailer for the movie. 
