SweetPaul Entertainment » The Hobbit http://www.sweetpaul.com Movies, Video Games, Music and More Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:36:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Lego The Lord of the Rings is coming! (Lego The Hobbit, too!) http://www.sweetpaul.com/lego-the-lord-of-the-rings-is-coming-lego-the-hobbit-too/ http://www.sweetpaul.com/lego-the-lord-of-the-rings-is-coming-lego-the-hobbit-too/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 17:48:53 +0000 Paul Martin http://www.sweetpaul.com/?p=1374 Looks like the article I wrote a while ago about the potential for a Lego Lord of the Rings was right on the money.  Back in February of 2010, I wrote that the LEGO company could create products based on the Lord of the Rings.  My article was more about video games than anything else, but this is a good start.  I suspect that video games are only a matter of time, now.

Here’s the press release:

Warner Bros. Consumer Products and The LEGO Group announced today a partnership that awards the world’s leading construction toy brand exclusive rights to develop build-and-play construction sets based on THE LORD OF THE RINGS™ trilogy and the two films based on THE HOBBIT™.  The multi-year licensing agreement grants access to the library of characters, settings, and stories for THE LORD OF THE RINGS property, as well as films The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again.  LEGO® THE LORD OF THE RINGS construction sets are slated for a rolling global launch beginning in June 2012 in the United States, with LEGO THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY scheduled for later in the year.

“Only LEGO, with their expertise in the construction category, is capable of doing justice to the incredibly imaginative environments depicted in the world of THE LORD OF THE RINGS and the two films based on THE HOBBIT,” said Karen McTier, executive vice president, domestic licensing and worldwide marketing, Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “These films give life to amazing worlds and characters and we are thrilled to bring fans these products that deliver an imaginative play experience befitting of these beloved properties.”

The LEGO THE LORD OF THE RINGS collection will translate into LEGO form the epic locations, scenes and characters of Middle-earth as depicted in all three films, including The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

In late 2012, LEGO THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY will give fans of all ages a chance to build and play out the fantastical story and new characters of the legendary Middle-earth adventures depicted in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journeyfrom Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson, slated to premiere December 14, 2012.

“Our collaboration with Warner Bros. Consumer Products has delivered numerous worldwide successes in the construction toy aisle with lines like LEGO HARRY POTTER and LEGO BATMAN, introducing us to loyal audiences who love great stories, strong characters and the toys that they inspire,” said Jill Wilfert, vice president, licensing and entertainment for The LEGO Group. “It’s particularly exciting to now be able to create sets based on the fantasy worlds and characters from THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy and the two films based on THE HOBBIT, not only because we know they will foster collectability and creative play, but also because these are two properties that our fans have been asking us to create for years.”

Information about the sets and collectible minifigures from both collections will be unveiled at a later date at TheLordoftheRings.LEGO.com.

About The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again
From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first of two films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit.  The second film will be The Hobbit: There and Back Again.  Both films are set in Middle-earth 60 years before The Lord of the Rings, which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar®-winning The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released beginning December 14, 2012.  The second film, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, is slated for release the following year, beginning December 13, 2013.

Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf the Grey, the character he played in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and Martin Freeman in the central role of Bilbo Baggins.  Also reprising their roles from “The Lord of the Rings” movies are: Cate Blanchett as Galadriel; Ian Holm as the elder Bilbo; Christopher Lee as Saruman; Hugo Weaving as Elrond; Elijah Wood as Frodo; Orlando Bloom as Legolas; and Andy Serkis as Gollum.  The ensemble cast also includes (in alphabetical order) Richard Armitage, John Bell, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Luke Evans, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Barry Humphries,Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Evangeline Lilly, Sylvester McCoy, Bret McKenzie, Graham McTavish, Mike Mizrahi, James Nesbitt, Dean O’Gorman, Lee Pace, Mikael Persbrandt, Conan Stevens, Ken Stott, Jeffrey Thomas, and Aidan Turner.

The screenplays for both The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again are by Fran Walsh,Philippa Boyens, Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson.  Jackson is also producing the films, together with Fran Walsh andCarolynne Cunningham.  The executive producers are Alan Horn, Ken Kamins, Toby Emmerich and Zane Weiner, with Boyens serving as co-producer.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again are being co-produced by New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. with New Line managing production.

Warner Bros Pictures will be handling theatrical distribution for most of the world and MGM will handle all international television licensing and theatrical distribution for certain international territories for the films.

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]]> http://www.sweetpaul.com/lego-the-lord-of-the-rings-is-coming-lego-the-hobbit-too/feed/ 0 On the Etiquette of Movie Spoilers http://www.sweetpaul.com/on-the-etiquette-of-movie-spoilers/ http://www.sweetpaul.com/on-the-etiquette-of-movie-spoilers/#comments Thu, 28 Apr 2011 02:03:33 +0000 Paul Martin http://www.sweetpaul.com/?p=1287 I just read a blog on Cape Town Community called Please Don’t Spoil My Movies! which I found to be something that I agreed with wholly.  When it comes to movies that I want to see, I don’t want to know what is going to happen.  If I see a trailer, that’s fine, but knowing anything beyond what the studio wants to show is a rarity for me.

It’s also for this reason that I don’t read reviews.  I think most critics are ridiculous, and I have yet to find a single one that I agree with all the time (based on looking at scores after I’ve seen a movie).  As I haven’t found a critic whose reviews match my own point of view 100% of the time, or even 50% of the time, how can I trust any critic to really get how I’ll feel about any movie.  They might hate a movie that I’ll love, or love a movie that I’ll hate.  Critics hold no sway over my perspective, for this reason, and I’ve found that I love some movies that even the critical mass has hated.  If I had listened to them, I wouldn’t have found the movie.

What does that have to do with movie spoilers?  Well, when I later go back and read a review, I note that they make mention of some pretty big plot points, or twists in the story that I would have been angry to know about before I saw the movie for myself.  This is another valid reason to avoid reviews.

When I make a list of movies to see, I generally know what the content of the movie is going to be, because I carefully pick out the movies that are of the subject matter that I am interested in.  I rarely see any R rated movies, and I try not to see very many movies that I’ll forget in a week, let alone a year.  I know what I’ll like, in general, and for this reason I am rarely disappointed with a movie that I see.  This has lead to some of my friends wondering if I’ve seen anything that I have hated or been disappointed with (as I liked the Matrix sequels and the Star Wars prequels).  I have: Land of the Lost, for example, took what should have been a family movie, and made it into something vulgar, and alienated the fans of the show and families at the same time.  What seemed to me to be a known quantity turned out not to be so.

Such things do happen, though they can be rare.

Cape Town also wrote something I agree with almost entirely, which reminded me of a conversation I had about Shutter Island, which I still have not seen:

Generally I do not mind reading spoilers as long as they are on my terms—and it can never be about a movie that I plan to see. If I’m not planning to see a movie I’ll ask you to spoil everything—partly because I’m curious and partly because I love the trepidation on the person’s face. “Are you sure?” the person asks, certain they’re breaking some unwritten celluloid law.

[...]

There’s something about having a movie spoiled for you that can ruin the entire experience. I want to be surprised. I don’t want to know before I sit down in the theater how the story is all going to unfurl.  A movie only has on chance at telling a story, while a television series gets a new opportunity each week. Spoiling the ending of Smallville would not be as devastating as spoiling the end of Thor.

I don’t like television shows spoiled almost as much as movies.  Having Lost spoiled would have been really horrible.

The article at Cape Town came from the fact that the writer watched a scene that I have not: the after credits scene that appears at the end of Thor.  He thought it might be something simple like the one at the end of Iron Man 2, but apparently it wasn’t.  When I saw that the scene was available, I also thought that I’d take a look, but something told me that I shouldn’t.  So I didn’t look at it, and am saving it for the big screen.

As a matter of fact, on my list of movies to see this year, there are a load of trailers that have released in the last few weeks, and I haven’t watched one.  The only trailers that I have seen are ones I’ve seen attached to movies that I was seeing theatrically.  When it comes to The Hobbit, however, I plan on watching every behind the scenes video and every trailer that comes out.  I can count on Peter Jackson to give just enough, and know that it’ll be all of that and more when it hits the big screen.

How do you feel about movie spoilers?  Are you someone that doesn’t care?  Have you ever cared?  Do you feel that your entire movie going experience is enhanced or reduced by how spoiled you are?

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]]> http://www.sweetpaul.com/on-the-etiquette-of-movie-spoilers/feed/ 0 The Hobbit – Start of Production Video Blog http://www.sweetpaul.com/the-hobbit-start-of-production-video-blog/ http://www.sweetpaul.com/the-hobbit-start-of-production-video-blog/#comments Sat, 16 Apr 2011 03:18:12 +0000 Paul Martin http://www.sweetpaul.com/?p=1281 This week saw the release of the first video blog from the New Zealand set of The Hobbit.  The long awaited follow-up to The Lord of the Rings, and my most anticipated two films since The Return of the King.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for a couple of movies.  And the coolest thing is that they’ll definitely live up to my expectations.  Knowing that many of the same creative team has returned, and that they’re putting the same detail and care into the project, would be a shock if they didn’t measure up at all to The Lord of the Rings.

When I watched the first production video blog that Peter Jackson put together, it gave me the familiar feeling of The Lord of the Rings behind the scenes.  The familiar music added an emotional weight to the video that conjured up memories of the films that have become so familiar to me, while also getting me really excited to hear the new music that Howard Shore is composing for these new adventures.

The video also made me want to build both Bag End and Rivendell at my house.

There hasn’t been a better writer than J.R.R. Tolkien, nor a better book than The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit is part of that world.  Watch the video below.

I love how it ends with what was likely the first shot they filmed for the film: a hand picking up the One Ring, followed by a shot of Bag End.

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]]> http://www.sweetpaul.com/the-hobbit-start-of-production-video-blog/feed/ 0 The Hobbit to be Two Films http://www.sweetpaul.com/the-hobbit-to-be-two-films/ http://www.sweetpaul.com/the-hobbit-to-be-two-films/#comments Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:14:09 +0000 Paul Martin http://www.sweetpaul.com/?p=648 The HobbitAfter much talk about the Hobbit film being shot as one film, with a second film to bridge The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings, a final decision has been made. Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro have made an announcement about the make-up of the Hobbit films to be made:

‘We’ve decided to have The Hobbit span the two movies, including the White Council and the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur,’ says Del Toro.

‘We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie,’ adds Jackson. ‘The essential brief was to do The Hobbit, and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more style, if you like, of the [Lord of the Rings] trilogy.’

This is a sensible decision and I’m glad that they went this route, rather than attempting to craft a second film that might have largely been their own invention for a bridge film. This is excellent news.

As far as future films in the saga, The Children of Hurin and The Silmarillion are both ripe for the picking!

The Hobbit release dates are as follows:

The Hobbit – Part 1: December 2011
The Hobbit – Part 2: December 2012

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