Tag Archives: smaug

Actors say Desolation of Smaug will be much darker than first ‘Hobbit’

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The Desolation of Smaug will be significantly darker than the dwarf, troll, and goblin-driven antics of the first Hobbit movie.

Hobbit actors talked to Yahoo! Movies during the promotion tour for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’s DVD / Blu-ray release:

Richard Armitage:

“[It] was so peppered with humour and lightness…because in movies two and three… it gets very, very dark.”

“The relationship [between Thorin and Bilbo] was always arching in a certain direction, creating a dramatic conclusion to movie one.  We’re driving to destination, when Thorin picks up Bilbo and is very, very violent towards him at the end of Tolkien’s story, in the book.

I’m not giving anything away. You have to get to that place somehow…”

Andy Serkis:

“It starts off quite light and I think progressively it will get more dangerous and dark as Bilbo gets further from home and in more jeopardy.  We’ll be able to sense that and feel that.

As the quest for the dwarves becomes more complicated and threatening, it’ll carry more weight.

James Nesbitt:

“It starts off with innocence and hope…and I think we’ve already seen some bits in ‘An Unexpected Journey’ where there is fear and Bilbo represents a lot of that. But I think ‘The Desolation of Smaug’ will get darker as they go into that world.”

Here’s Yahoo! Movies UK’s full video interview:

IGN also has a video interview with cast members, this one focusing on Smaug himself:

I hope we get that first real video blog for The Desolation of Smaug soon.  As for the first trailer?  My bet is that it will be attached to Man of Steel on June 14.

Video excerpt from Desolation of Smaug live event

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MirkwoodArt2Peter Jackson has posted a 6 minute portion of the live preview of The Desolation of Smaug.

We get a couple great looks at Mirkwood concept art, hear Jackson’s approach to the story structure, and…is that Smaug’s roar at the end?

Here’s what Peter had to say (via his Facebook page):

Thanks to everyone who tuned into our Live Event last week. I’ve never done anything like that before, and I was pretty nervous. Hope it was ok.

If you saw it, it was a pretty accurate picture of what life is like at the moment. Jabez and I sit in that editing room all day, every day, editing the second Hobbit movie, and we actually start on the third next week! A lot of that movie was shot nearly a year ago, so I’m looking forward to seeing it come alive, shot by shot in the cutting room. It’s like assembling one of those complex 2000 piece jigsaw puzzles.

For us, this is really the being of 2013, so I look forward to posting a bunch more stuff as we work through the year.

I think that an edited version of the Live Event is being made available over at the official Hobbit site, and Warner Bros have kindly let me post a 6 min excerpt here, to give everyone who missed it a sense of what it was like.

Cheers,
Peter J

I’m expecting that most or perhaps all of the remaining footage from the live event will make its way online at some point within the next month or two as part of Jackson’s first official video blog for Desolation.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits US theaters in HFR 3D on December 13. See IMDB for a list of international release dates.

Coverage of The Desolation of Smaug live event via TheOneRing.net!

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smaugTheOneRing.net has a few great rundowns of the live event/sneak peek/Q&A for The Desolation of Smaug that took place earlier today:

Some things TORn staffers were excited to see in PJ’s ‘sneak peek’

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Sneak Peek – commentary

A running commentary made during the Live Sneak Peek

The main scene shown was Gandalf and Radagast visiting Dol Guldur and investigating the Nazgul tombs.  They also showed clips with Tauriel, Legolas, and Thranduil in Mirkwood and of Bilbo in Smaug’s lair…though no glimpses of the dragon yet.  In fact, Peter Jackson seems to have lightly trolled the viewers: (via TORn)

We enter the Pre-Viz department where Peter tells us they are doing some spider work as well as working on Smaug. Smaug! Hooray! Are we about to see him? But when we are shown the first computer screen, it’s one of the dragons from Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon. [The 'Monstrous Nightmare' - as shown in the image with this post!]  A shot of a second monitor show the animator working on… a T-Rex with wings. Peter gently explains to the animator that those wings are far too small to lift the mass of that T-Rex.

Pretty funny if you ask me, and I can relate to that audience…I had a dream a couple months back where I was watching TDOS and Smaug turned out to be some kind of sock puppet.  Looks like Peter Jackson knows how much we want to see him and is acknowledging our excitement while doing the wise thing by not revealing him.

I expect the first trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug to hit in May or June. And I doubt we’ll see more than an eye or claw from Smaug in that either.

Weta Digital’s Joe Letteri talks HFR 3D and Smaug

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hobbit-desolation-smaugStudioDaily.com has an interview with WETA Digital head Joe Letteri where he explains how making The Hobbit in HFR 3D affected WETA’s VFX process:

Studio Daily: What was the impact of 48 fps on post-production?

Joe Letteri: In a way, it was as simple as twice as many frames, so we had to do more work. It did allow us more creativity with animation. When you have 48 frames for every second, you can handle quick changes of motion better. You can see that in Gollum. At 48, you can really define those micro expressions. At 24 fps, the expressions are softer. We capture at 60 frames per second, so we could use more of the motion-capture data.

That WETA is already using 60 fps capture adds to the likelihood that future blockbusters they work on will be made at 60 fps.  I expect announcements of more high frame rate movies soon.  If I were to bet, I’d guess that the next announced HFR movie (beyond what has already been 100% confirmed) will be X-Men: Days of Future Past.  Bryan Singer has been making a string of exciting casting and plot related announcements on his Twitter, and he previously said he had “frame rate envy” after seeing The Hobbit in HFR. So I definitely expect to see this mutant epic in HFR 3D.

Letteri mentions realism as representing the future of visual effects:

Studio Daily: Leaving the business trends aside, what trends do you see technically and artistically in visual effects?

Joe Letteri: Generally, I see more of this trend toward realism. In a way, that’s what we’ve always done. But now, there’s more acknowledging that it is what we do. There’s more of a focus on understanding and trying to apply realism. Even though it’s more complex, it gives you the ability to standardize around a known quantity. There is less guesswork when you measure the real world.

What are you excited about now?

Smaug. He’s our next big character. You just got a few glimpses of him in the first film. I love the Riddles in the Dark, and I love Smaug. Seeing what we can do with Smaug is the next thing.

As I’ve been saying for a while now, I can’t wait to see Smaug.  His reveal at the end of An Unexpected Journey was perfect: from the thrush’s leisurely flight to the The Lonely Mountain, to it knocking the seed on the wall, then the camera taking us into the huge treasure chambers where we hear the amplified echoes of the thrush’s activity as we track over the hills of gold and treasure, leading into the final push-in on the dragon’s eye as we discover that Smaug had been sleeping under the gold coins all this time. I got chills.

Letteri’s love for Smaug and his excitement regarding Smaug as WETA’s “next big character” is very encouraging, as is the implicit promise of new techniques being used to bring Smaug and his environment to life.  We’ve never had a great talking dragon in the movies, not to mention a dragon whose belly is encrusted in dazzling golden coins and gems. Can’t wait to see how WETA plays with the lighting effects.

Even if An Unexpected Journey doesn’t win the best Visual Effects award tonight, I’d bet Smaug will win it for them in 2014.

Check out the StudioDaily.com interview for a lot more fascinating VFX-related discussion from Letteri.

First look at Bilbo in Smaug’s lair from ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’

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Hot on the heels of their premiere photo of Legolas and Bard from There and Back Again, EW has debuted an exclusive first look at Bilbo in Smaug’s lair from The Desolation of Smaug:

This is the scene I’ve waited my entire life to see in a blockbuster Hobbit movie. I can’t wait to see the venal, proud, and ancient Smaug in all his jewel-encrusted glory. Judging by comments made by Jackson and Del Toro, Smaug will (rightly) be the dragon to end all dragons.

Meanwhile, Philippa Boyens explains to EW that the thrust of the Hobbit story doesn’t end with the dragon:

“The dragon is a huge, wonderful, amazing part of the story, but it doesn’t end there. Everyone can suspect there’s a rather large battle in film three.”

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits theaters on December 13, 2013.

Peter Jackson talks Smaug; & listen to the first full track from Howard Shore’s score

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For those of you who think you got to see magnificent creatures in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, Balrogs and Fell Beasts are nothing compared to Lord Smaug the Tremendous, the unassessably wealthy, the Golden, the Mighty, the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities.

Via Hero Complex, here’s Peter Jackson on the challenge of realizing the most famous dragon of all time:

“The trouble with redesigning dragons is that if you really get fruity with it, it suddenly starts to look like some sort of monster from another planet — you very quickly can go into science-fiction territory. I don’t want to do that. I mean, people expect a dragon. ‘The Hobbit’ is one of the most famous dragon stories in the world, really. So I’m not trying to step away from the dragon. I just want to present the most venal, scary, decrepit, nasty dragon that I possibly can.”

Smaug is the main reason I’m so excited for The Hobbit films – the decision to turn The Hobbit into a trilogy will allow Jackson to fully showcase his personality, visual eccentricities and story impact.  I have no doubt that The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will bring not just the dragon to end all dragons, but a type of wonder and awe rarely seen in movies these days.

And although Jackson didn’t use Guillermo del Toro’s designs, I’m hopeful that he’ll add the best elements of what del Toro concocted to his own creation.  For instance, the emphasis on the dragon’s movement and environment:

”To me, Smaug is the perfect example of a great creature defined by its look and design, yes, but also, very importantly, by his movement and -One little hint- its environment – Think about it…”

Jackson also gave Hero Complex two specific examples of story elements drawn from the appendices: the tale of how Gandalf began working with Thorin and an expanded story for Gollum.  The article doesn’t say how much, if any, of these additional plot points will make it into the first Hobbit film.

In other news, via AwardsDaily we have our first full track from Howard Shore’s score for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  Listen to the track, “Radagast the Brown,” below:

Advance tickets for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey go on sale this Wednesday, November 7 at 12 pm EST, 9 am PST.

The Hobbit updates: The Desolation of Smaug & 3rd film release date

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Smaug, as drawn by Michael Hague

Warner Bros. has confirmed that the title of the 2nd Hobbit movie will be The Desolation of Smaug.  They also set the date for the 3rd film: July 18, 2014.

I love this title not only because it’s based on an actual location from one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s maps, but also since it’s an implicit promise that the Smaug scenes in the 2nd film will be dazzlingly epic. Smaug’s attack on Laketown will surely be a huge action set piece, and Bilbo’s initial encounter with the dragon in his lair has the potential to be a classic cinematic moment.  Just imagine how cool it will be to see Smaug’s lair and Bilbo’s face decorated with the dancing rainbow reflections of the gems and coins encrusted in the dragon’s hide. When Guillermo Del Toro was attached as director, he confirmed that that the environment would play a major role in the audience’s experience of Smaug’s lair. Here’s to hoping Jackson’s version keeps it this way.  Here’s Del Toro talking about Smaug, via theonering.net:

”To me, Smaug is the perfect example of a great creature defined by its look and design, yes, but also, very importantly, by his movement and -One little hint- its environment – Think about it…”

He also says:

“What I meant by the environment / Smaug relationship is about the way he is scaled, moves and is lit, limited or enhanced by his location, weather conditions, light conditions, time of the year, etc. That’s all I can say without spoilers but, if you keep this curious little summary you’ll realize several years form now that those things I had in my mind ever since doodling the character as a kid had solidified waaay before starting the shoot of the film.

“A big tool is also how and when he is fully revealed. I could give you specifics- beat-by-beat in fact (I’m geeking out to do it), but… I will say no more in order to save you from ruthless spoilerage (we have a few years to go, you now…?) and increased anxiety.

Keep this little note…”

Del Toro also talked about how Smaug had to be the best representation of a dragon ever seen on a screen:

“Smaug should not be “the Dragon in the Hobbit movie” as if it was just “another” creature in a Bestiary. Smaug should be “The DRAGON” for all movies past and present. The shadow he cast and the greed he comes to embody- the “need to own” casts its long shadow and creates a thematic / dramatic continuity of sorts that articulates the story throughout.”

Check out theonering.net for more Smaug talk from Guillermo.

Also of recent note in regards to Smaug, Benedict Cumberbatch gave away a potential spoiler as to how we may get our first glimpse of the dragon to end all dragons.  The source notes that the interview  occurred before the decision to add a third movie, so things may well have changed. I think it would be one of those perfect chills-inducing shots if it does make it into the trilogy.

As for the release date for the third film, Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman explains: “Opening in July affords us not only the perfect summer tentpole, but fans will have less time to wait for the finale of this epic adventure.”  Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, president of international distribution, adds: “The Hobbit: There and Back Again will be an action spectacle and an emotional conclusion for this already much-anticipated trilogy. Opening in the summer will maximize playability for what promises to be an event film for fans the world over.”

Stay tuned for the second official trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which has been confirmed for sometime this in September.