The Hobbit films, previously to be directed by Guillermo del Toro and now to be directed by Peter Jackson again.

http://io9.com/#!5757616/first-video-of-the-dwarf-and-hobbit-cast-of-peter-jacksons-the-hobbit-together-at-last/gallery/5

whoa, didnt know andrew sullivan was gonna be in this

Via Ian McKellen's blog: http://www.mckellen.com/cinema/hobbit-movie/110308.htm

I've seen Bilbo — in three dimensions.

I was visiting old friends in the Stone Street offices and heard Martin Freeman was just round the corner by the permanent greenscreen, done up as Bilbo, testing his costume in front of the 3D cameras. Indeed, there he was in the open air, mostly oblivious to the camera, though turning this way and that as required. Martin improvised a hobbity gait, padding back and forth, testing his big hairy Hobbit feet, pointy ears and little tum.

Beneath the shade of a tent, in a sun hat, Andrew Lesnie was remotely controlling the two lenses within the mighty camera which digitally records in 3D. His screen showed the familiar 2D image but next to it, above the director's chair, was a large colour screen in full magical three dimensions, much as it will appear in the cinema — courtesy of the spy-glasses that transform the blurred outlines onscreen to the high definition exactitude of the 3D effect.

oh man

FUCK 3D

goddamn you Avatar so much to answer for

i have no desire to see any movie in 3D but how much does shooting it that way effect (or dim) the visuals if you're watching it in 2D (in a regular theater or at home later)?

"the spy-glasses"

Well to me it suggests that instead of shooting the film to make the best 2D movie they possibly can, they will be splitting their attention between two different formats, and possibly with an edge to 3D gimmicks.

"I've seen Bilbo — in three dimensions."

This statement seems so dirty to me...

Could it be that people aren't going out to see movies at the rate they used to unless they are 3D IMAX MEGABLOCKBUSTERS?

That's my guess.

People want to see those 1D blockbuster stories in 3D!

so can we talk for a second about how he was watching Martin Freeman live in costume doing motion capture work and that's not the part he's talking about re: "I saw him in 3D"

He saw Martin in reality and Bilbo on screen in 3D is how I understood it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfesknLk5uI

This is the first truly exciting thing I've seen about The Hobbit in a loooonnnggg time.

I'm totally psyched now and I think Peter Jackson as director is great move.

April 1st lol @ http://www.mckellen.com/cinema/hobbit-movie/blog.htm

Surprised no-one posted about the 48 frames per second thing. Sounds much more interesting than it being in 3D.

I'd like to see a comparison 24/25 fps vs 48 fps because I'm not sure what to think. If it were such an improvement, wouldn't they've been shooting at 48 for years already?

can the human eye tell much difference?

"Dear Mr. Lucas. Please take note.... ehem..

REAL FUCKING SETS!!!!

Thank you for your time.

aegisgfx 1 hour ago 5 "

It'll look a lot more like video. x-post

martin freeman doing well for the ol' Postwar British Comedy scoreboard between arthur dent and bilbo. he should go oscar with money or something.

(totally looking forward to this though)

xpost

Let's not forget that he's Dr. Watson too!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13599286

Sir Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood will reprise their roles as Gandalf the Grey and Frodo respectively.

??? Was Frodo even born during the events of Hobbit? Or will the movies include an epilogue with Frodo or something?

Yeah some sort of framing thing.

I think Frodo is seen during a song and dance number with Smaug called "Don't be takin' my treasure/My precious Ring(reprise)"

There's gonna be a heck of a lot padding in these things

please God no long drawn out scenes with enya in the background and Hobbits sniffling and hugging

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20504849,00.html#20980350

http://www-images.theonering.org/torwp/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Dori-Nori-and-Ori.jpg

^ dwarves, not Hobbits, obv

Ugh.

So, in this period of Middle Earth, dwarves are made of plastic?

They're related to garden gnomes.

nice to see he's using a lighter touch this time. subtly done, those plastic midgets

god i need to remind myself to stop opening up "anticipating" threads

haha max

is this whole movie gonna be short people? if so they should only charge half price.

quarter price, since they're gonna split this movie into two parts

I had troll dolls that looked more convincingly human.

but they're not human, they're dwarfs, do you see???

wasn't the cartoon hobbit only 1 1/2 hours? i thought they captured everything necessary in that, and even padded it with songs. i totally don't get why this is gonna be 2 movies, and am a bit worried now!

Entirely my concern! Should be a nice lighthearted prologue to the overblown Lord of the Rings.

even the flimsiest novella can be adapted for the screen into two 3-hour movies -- the material is there, they may as well shoot as much of it as they want

But they are putting in loads of stuff that isn't in the book.

eh, i kinda disagree. i mean i'd be happy to be proved wrong by the movie itself - if it's 6 hours of film in 2 sittings and it all rocks, ok, great, i take it all back! but i feel like the hobbit's a fairly concise story, and filling it out into 2 long movies is kinda stretching it out more than is strictly necessary. i mean, are they really gonna put Gandalf's Adventures Somewhere Completely Different in the middle of the frikkin hobbit? frankly i'm worried.

the lord of the rings was overblown, but that's kinda it's charm. and yet how muchm of the books (not to mention filmed footage) did they have to excise to make it a compelling narrative? don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining, i thought the movies were great - enjoyed every minute. but they really couldn't have been a millisecond longer without starting to bore me.

the hobbit needs no new material - it's perfectly written to be transformed to a single feature length film. god, is this the studios pressuring (or even just encouraging/indulging) pj to make 2 movies instead of one, just to automagically double the ticket sales? ugh.

(xpost 1 up)

<already firing up final cut to make a "phantom edit" of bloated 6 hour hobbit epic fail>