"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001) - Deleted opening scene

You know that the first film of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy starts with prologue, where the story of the rings is told, and then we see Gandalf the Grey, who arrives in The Shire, meets Frodo and visits Bilbo.

This deleted scene shows that "The Fellowship of the Ring" might have started with Bilbo Baggins' short story about the Hobbits, their lifestyle and habits. I find this opening very interesting and amusing, because there wasn't much time for those great ancient race to be on the screen. And Hobbiton is a very beautiful place indeed.

I can only imagine how hard it was for Peter Jackson to choose between those two great opening scenes.

More about upcoming "The Hobbit" duology!

"The Hobbit": Video Blog #6 from the Set

Peter Jackson is so good at making me more exited to watch these two films. He shows us something about them, but keeps quiet about even more things.

"The Hobbit" team is still on locations somewhere in New Zealand. I bet the people, who was the part of "The Lord of The Rings", have sentimental flashbacks constantly. Thanks to this video we have more time to discover what kind of people the new actors, who play the dwarves, are. I think they are getting along great.

You can see again how much effort everyone puts in this duology. They are trying to film the most beautiful views of New Zealand, which isn't as easy as it sounds. Many views are filmed especially for 3D from the helicopters, and they will look magnificent on the big screen with Howard Shore's music.

Andy Serkis must have been a huge help for Peter Jackson all this time, because he is a 2nd unit director and always works so hard. But when he called the director 'PJ', I started laughing very hard. What a great friends they have become!

"- How can it be 133 days for three films and 127 days for two films?
- It can be easily explained. We all are 10 years older, so we're going a little slower."

And Ian McKellen told us that we shouldn't be worried about actors, because they have great conditions there (the food looks delicious).

Watch previous video blogs from the set!
More about "The Hobbit" duology!



Click on pictures to enlarge them.

Christopher Lee 2011 Christmas Message

When I was watchin those two videos, which are kindly recorded by Christopher Lee, I smiled the whole time. He is a wonderful man, very talented actor and a kind person, whom I'd like to meet. In the next year he will celebrate his 90th (!) birthday, and I'm glad he still makes appearances in many films.

"When he asked me to do this [Hugo], I said, well it's about time. Isn't it?" - Christopher Lee about Scorsese

He talks about his upcoming films: "The Wicker Tree", "Hugo" and how much he enjoyed working with Martin Scorsese, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", "The Hobbit: There and Back Again", "Dark Shadows". I'm so exited to see all of the above, especially Peter Jackson's duology, where his Saruman will be the good wizard.

"I emphasize again, I don't play long parts. They must be short parts, but they've got to be parts that mean something, that matter. The people will notice when I'm on the screen and will remember the character after they've seen the film."

In the second video, he talks about an honor being a Fellow of BAFTA. He also discusses his second heavy metal album "Charlemagne: The Omens of Death", which will be out on his birthday.

I wish him to have a Happy New Year, strong health and remain being the Great. I hope he knows how much we love him and his work.

Part 1 of the message



Part 2 of the message

"The Hobbit": Fifth Video Blog from the Set

"The main reason for going on location for the project is to capture the scenic beauty of New Zealand."

Peter Jackson presents another video from the set of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey". As he promised in the previous one, he takes us on locations, where they are filming some interesting scenes. You can see the crew traveled a lot (and probably will travel more). I'm again impressed how many people are working on this story - they say there are over a five hundred workers and dozens of trucks were used to take all stuff out of the studio. Looks like everything has been packed (WC cabins; coffee makers; costumes; cameras; actors; fake hair for beards, feet and wigs; giant plants and trees; cows, pigs, ducks etc).

Elijah Wood said such touching words about coming back after 11 years. It must be a great feeling to film there again.

Even Prime Minister of New Zealand came to visit "The Hobbit" team. They say Hobbiton was built for real this time and it will be left untouched for those, who would like to visit this place. I'm first in that row. 

Now this video is my favourite among others, because I'd gave many things to have a chance to work on such a wonderful project and to film on those locations. New Zealand is very picturesque. And I'd like to retire in Hobbiton too, especially if Peter Jackson will settle there. What a neighbour he could be!

Next video from the set will be released early in the next year.

Watch previous videos from the set of upcoming duology "The Hobbit":
1st video,
2nd video,
3rd video,
4th video.

More about "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" (2012)! (all pictures, stories, news, set videos, Peter Jackson's statements etc.)



And a few interesting pictures from the set (click on the image to enlarge it):

Peter The Great

Peter The Funny 

Floating dwarves

If some unreleased pictures will leak, guess whose fault it will be...

Andy Serkis is busy gathering flowers

Map of New Zealand magically turns into a map of the Middle-Earth 

Occupying the space of a football field

Sentimental Elijah Wood

Peaceful Hobbiton

Next movie star

Peter and his team are wishing us a "MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" - First trailer, poster and many stills

"Bilbo Baggins, I'm looking for someone to share an adventure."

I can't tell you how exited I am that the first trailer has arrived! New and old characters of the Middle-earth promise us something huge, dangerous and breathtaking. Shire looks peaceful, but we know that all adventures begin there. I can go on, but you better watch it with your own eyes.

Directed by Peter Jackson.

See the list of all characters and actors below the trailer.

Release date - December 14, 2012.

Poster (click to enlarge) - iTunes movie trailers








Trailer #1



Let me introduce all main characters (click on the picture to enlarge it):

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman)

Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen)

Fili (Dean O'Gorman)

Kili (Aidan Turner)

Oin (John Callen)

Gloin (Peter Hambleton)

Dwalin (Graham McTavish)

Balin (Ken Stott)

Bifur (William Kircher)

Bofur (James Nesbitt)

Bombur (Stephen Hunter)

Dori (Mark Hadlow)

Nori (Jed Brophy)

Ori (Adam Brown)

Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage)

Galadriel (Cate Blanchett)

Gollum (Andy Serkis) (try to find him)

"The Hobbit" (2012) - New Bilbo and dwarves still

Warner Bros. Pictures released a new still for Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey". It has been a long time since we saw hobbits and dwarves, but they still look great in costumes and with a very complicated make-up. On this picture you can see Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins who is ready for a big adventure; James Nesbitt as Bofur, Stephen Hunter as Bombur, Graham McTavish as Dwalin, William Kircher as Bifur and Jed Brophy as Nori. I hope I'll learn how to tell them apart till I see this film.

More about "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" (2012)!

Are you waiting for "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"?

"The Fellowship of the Ring" - Magical soundtrack

I hope everyone's having a great day, but if not, it's perfect time for listening to some wonderful music. I accidentally found this video and it reminded me how strongly I love any music written by Howard Shore. Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy is epic, so it is Shore's music. Without this composer it would have been different, that's why I am very glad that he is in charge of the soundtrack for "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" and "The Hobbit: There and Back Again", which are being filmed somewhere in New Zealand right now.

This track is called "Concerning Hobbits" and makes me smile, when I hear its very first notes. I see young Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd before they have started their long and difficult journey. This music is perfect for green, happy, serene Shire. It feels like home and everything is fine.

"The Hobbit": Fourth Video Blog from the Set

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit..."

After some weeks of silence, Peter Jackson surprises us with this new video about making films based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. He shows how action scenes are being made and some rare pictures from the set of the great trilogy "Lord of the Rings". An interesting 'behind the scenes' part is about cameras and other technologies they use to create a realistic 3D.

You can see there Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman, actors who play dwarfs and very talented staff, whose names are not very known. It's left a year before we can finally watch "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", but I can surely say it is going to be not less epic than "Lord of the Rings".

Next video will be set on locations, where they are going to film some scenes for a few months.

Watch other videos from the set of upcoming duology "The Hobbit":
First video,
Second video,
Third video.

More about "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" (2012)! (all pictures, stories, news, set videos, Peter Jackson's statements etc.)

Video Blog #4