The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

[Passdagas the Brown]

Voice: Thranduil, what do you want to do with your life?
Thranduil: I wanna rock!

[Elentári]

More info on he forthcoming Lego TBotFA sets from Spanish website elanillounico.com, including a close-up of the Dain Ironfoot figure - and video clip on the witch-king battle of DG set

[Beutlin]

New set pictures from "The Hobbit: The Batte of the Five Armies"?

https://www.herr-der-ringe-film.de/v3/d ... 113280.php

The pictures are apparently taken from an article of the upcoming October edition of CINEMA, a German cinema magazine.

The captions for the pictures reveal nothing new, from what I can tell. The caption for the second picture reads: "After these battles a small drama is very alluring - Peter Jackson". I guess that quote is about PJ's future film project. The upper-right caption for the last picture reads: "What I like so much about part three is the connection to the first "Rings"-film, says Ian McKellen, mainly alluding to Sauron's return".

Picture 4: Is that Legolas' or Thranduil's double in the back?

[Elentári]

Thanks Beutlin - and the ever-reliable DarkJackal already has scans and a translation of the Cinema article up on her Heirs of Durin website...

An intriguing read - it seems that the peoples of Esgaroth are attacked by Orcs as they flee the burning town, and there is a massacre in Dale involving Elves as well.

There is also this quote:

While the wargs and orcs head for the mountain, elves, men and dwarves form an alliance in the “Battle of Five Armies” against enemies that act under the influence of the Necromancer.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

That was an interesting read. I'm okay with the enemies acting under the influence of Sauron, so long as it is from afar. Also interesting was this:

At the end of the massacre, Thranduil (Lee Pace), king of the wood elves, at the same time angry and sad looks at his fallen companions and the dead bodies of the orcs as he is torn out of thoughts by Gandalf (Ian McKellen). The wizard is clad in grey and pleads to Thranduil for help in the fight against the powers of darkness. He however only replies: “The elves have already shed enough blood in this land.”

It seems clear that one change from the book is that the appearance of the Orc/Goblin army that changes the nature of the battle is not a sudden surprise. That might not necessarily be a bad thing, though, depending on how it plays out.

[Passdagas the Brown]

Oh, good. I thought these films needed another orc attack (this time on the Laketown refugees). Would be impossible, I think, to create suspense with a different narrative device. Perhaps PJ should patent "orc attack" and force other filmmakers to pay him to use it?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Earthquake? Tidal wave? Runaway train? Asteroid? How about the sun catastrophically heating up? That would ramp up the tension!

[Passdagas the Brown]

Or how about some squabbling over who should lead the Laketown refugees, with Bard ultimately coming out on top? It's possible that will happen anyway, but "orc attacks" have become such a joke that the arrival of an orc army at the BOFA may not make much of an impact...

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Or how about some squabbling over who should lead the Laketown refugees, with Bard ultimately coming out on top? It's possible that will happen anyway,

I hope, and almost expect, that it will, and I look forward to it (though I may be disappointed by its absence).

but "orc attacks" have become such a joke that the arrival of an orc army at the BOFA may not make much of an impact...

Sadly, I find no way to disagree with that statement.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Some interesting comments from Benedict Cumberbatch in an Empire interview, courtesy of Bexlin at TORN (no link is given):

Talking about motion capture and the Necromancer:

"It took ages to convince people that I didn't just do the voice of Smaug or the Necromancer, that I actually physically acted them. The Necromancer's a big part of the next film. I know the Dragon steals the second one, but the Necromancer is Sauron, basically. So I was doing a bit of that yesterday (September 5). Probably my last session.
What can you expect? I don't know that I should say, because it's a big, big scene in the film. But he's a key player. You get to see what Gandalf's been up to and what ensues with that interaction. That comes to a pretty devastating conclusion. I'm not going to say anything more. Smaug gets out of this one in the first few chapters of the film. Don't want to spoil it for anyone, but there is a book out there.

Empire: and you were the Dragon for the hobbit. How different it was the final screen Smaug from how you imagined it?
Cumberbatch: Massively different, but really, it's the world they create around you that's the weird thing.
...
But back to Smaug, i've never been able to watch myself on screen, because you have that horrible self conscious feeling of seeing all the wrong choices you made. That this was utter joy. I sat watching it at Manns Chinese Theatre in LA and I was with a friend of mine who I've known for years. We were both obsessed with the book as kids. We were sat there like schoolboys giggling and going, "Holy ****! That's so cool". I remember just turning to him and shouting, "I'm a Dragon!"

[WampusCat]

"I'm a Dragon!"

I love the "utter joy" he describes feeling as he sees the finished Smaug in action.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Comments from Billy Connolly about playing Dain:

https://uk.yahoo.com/movies/the-hobbit- ... 13466.html

Talking about the look of his character – a famous dwarf who eventually becomes King Under The Mountain ...

Confirmation that Dain does in fact become King Under the Mountain in the films, or just a reference to the book?

[Alatar]

Sigh.


Is it just me or is there a serious lack of buzz about this movie? Where's the Vlogs? The trailers? Anything?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The trailer should be coming in the next few weeks. I doubt there will be any vlogs.

[Elentári]

It's not just you, Al...

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that the lack of promotional material, apart from the teaser and the forthcoming trailer that we've been promised, could well be due to the fact that the amount of finished material is relatively limited - surely a consequence of the massive amount of CGI being used, which takes a great deal of post-production time, not to mention PJ's penchant for filming stuff (with his hand held cam) right up to the last possible minute!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Or it could be due to a conscious decision not to saturate the market too early. Which is not to say that I think that that is or is not the correct marketing tactic. In any event, I don't care much, since I am more concerned (as I am sure both of you are) with how good the film is than how well it does. It is, of course, an open question as to whether Jackson spending more time on the film is a good thing, but I still would rather have his focus be on making it the best that it can be than on marketing.

[Elentári]

Meanwhile, further hints from Evangeline Lilly on the possible resolution of Tauriel's character arc in the latest Total Film magazine...

Quote courtesy of DwellerinDale over on TORn:

"In the third film, there is a lot of resolution to her story", Lilly tells Total Film of her bow-wielding warrior. "Of course, she's an elf, so she lives forever. You don't get an ending, you just get a resolution to this particular part of her story". That resolution, she says, is likely to have some of her own stamp on it, too..."This team of writers- Peter, Fran [Walsh] and Philippa [Boyens]- are the most collaborative, open, generous team I've ever encountered in 10 years in the business. From the very beginning, they said, 'We've scratched out what this character's going to be, but we actually haven't made anything solid, because we've been waiting to see who we cast. And hopefully that person will help us build the character.' I've had an amazing time with them figuring out who she is. I think that she is a character that for the rest of my life I'll be really proud to have played. The idea of being a part of cinema history is really exciting."

----Evangeline Lilly on playing Tauriel in BOFA

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I never thought that Tauriel would die, so this doesn't surprise me. Of course, it is vague enough that it could mean just about anything.

[Frelga]

Has this been posted yet? No source and no idea if it's credible, but could be a major spoiler for the movie

[Passdagas the Brown]

If that's an actual line from the film, I have to say that PB and J have improved as scriptwriters. The line "Moria scum," in particular, represents a significant evolution in their craft.