Andrew Serkis Talks about playing Gollum

Andrew Serkis Talks to Indie Wire about playing Gollum

And what’s it been like revisiting Gollum in the Hobbit, his breakthrough performance capture character from a decade ago? “Again, now the computers can handle large amounts of data and you can play scenes out in their entirety,” Serkis offered. “That was one of the joys of going back to Gollum after all these years. It’s 60 years before Lord of the Rings , and he’s been living with himself in that craven, lustful, paranoid state for 540 years, so this is obviously a linchpin scene dramatically, with Gollum losing the ring.”

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Luke Evens aka Bard Bowman Talks to Empire

Luke Evans who is cast as the archer in the Hobbit talked to Empire about his role and what he is doing to prepare.  Evens also has a role in the Three Musketeers.  Empire online Reports:

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The Hobbit director Peter Jackson Drops in at Comic-Con

Entertainment Week reports : “Six thousand people packed into Comic-Con’s Hall H broke out in a simultaneous nerdgasm as Peter Jackson made a surprise appearance alongside Steven Spielberg at this morning’s panel for Dec. 23′s The Adventures of Tintin.

Spielberg, making his own first-ever appearance at Comic-Con, was greeted with a raucous standing ovation as the panel began. He introduced what was supposed to be a clip of an animation test of the CGI dog in Tintin and was instead a clip of Jackson, wearing a sailor’s cap and holding a bottle of booze, purportedly doing his own screen test for the role of Captain Haddock. Then Jackson himself took the stage. ‘Working with Steven has been amazing,’ Jackson said. ‘I think he shows real promise. If he decides to stick with filmmaking, I think he could really go places.’”

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Hobbit - All 13 dwarves revealed...seven dwarves overshadowed

Onering.net reports all 13 dwarves revealed:

Click to enlarge

 Left to Right -

Jed Brophy as Nori, Dean O' Gorman as Fili, Mark Hadlow as Dori, James Nesbitt as Bofur,  Peter Hambleton as Gloin, Graham McTavish as Dwalin, Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield (center), Ken Stott as Balin, John Callen as Oin, Stephen Hunter  as Bombur, Willian Kircher as Bifur, Adam Brown as Ori and Aiden Turner as Kili .

In other news seven dwarves feel overshadowed...

Hobbit Production Video diary online #3

Video Diary number three from the Hobbit Production diary is available from the Official Hobbit Blog with the following caption:

This just in from Peter Jackson, with the following note:

“Good news and bad news today. Bad news is that we won’t be doing any Hobbit presentation at Comic Con in San Diego this year. New Line and Warner Bros were very happy to support a presentation, but I declined, simply because I felt it was too early. There’s so much more of the films still to shoot. I just wanted to get that out there, because I’ve seen various references to the possibility of something Hobbity at Comic Con. Hate to disappoint anyone. But something tells me we will be there in force next year.

Now for the good news… We’ve just finished a new video blog, covering a little more of the first block of shooting. So please enjoy this—at least you don’t have to travel to San Deigo to see it! “

New Dwarves - Bombur, Bofur and Bifer

The Sun reports:

The pint-sized characters Bombur, Bofur and Bifur have been revealed by director Peter Jackson five months before the first film is released. They embark on an adventure with hobbit Bilbo Baggins to reclaim treasure from Smaug the dragon.

The dwarves, played by Stephen Hunter, James Nesbitt and William Kircher respectively, have major roles in the fantasy story.

New dwarves Balin and Dwalin

Time posts pics of new hobbit dwarves:

(L-R) Ken Stott as Balin and Graham McTavish as Dwalin

Peter Jackson's upcoming film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, has been hotly anticipated by everyone from Tolkien obsessives to film buffs. The crew behind the movie, including Jackson himself, has kept fans salivating by documenting the movie's production through blog posts and videos. But TIME is the first to bring you this image of two characters from the film, dwarves named Balin and Dwalin. Below, find Warner Bros.' description of the two, and then click on for more images of The Hobbit's beloved dwarves.

"Dwarf Lords in their own right, Balin and Dwalin are close relatives of Thorin. Beyond this, these brothers are two of his most loyal and trusted friends. An old warrior, Balin has lived through hard times and fought many battles, yet he harbors doubts about the wisdom of the Quest to retake the Lonely Mountain. Dwalin has no such forebodings – his belief in Thorin’s leadership is unshakeable. A powerful and bruising fighter, with a natural tendency to distrust anyone who is not a Dwarf, particularly anyone who might be an Elf, Dwalin is not someone to cross lightly."