If you were one the Hobbit fans that bought the dvd prior to Sunday, you were lucky enough to be given a treat into the filming, editing and ultimately a clip for the next installment, The Desolation of Smaug.
In the hour-long video behind the scenes footage is shown, questions are taken by fans, actors of the past franchise, newbies to the franchise and at the very end, an incredible insight as to Gandalf’s investigation into the Necromancer at Dol Guldur that is accompanied by Radagast.
For message board followers of the book to movie adaptation, the fact Gandalf pretends not to know about the Necromancer to the White Council meeting in the first film of the Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey is probably the biggest issue so far. But director Peter Jackson seems to fill this void specifically in the special scene described below…
In the scene, Gandalf walks into a dark shadowy place, lights his staff for guidance when a bat appears to give you a good scare. Out of nowhere, Radagast shows up looking confused. Either he was already there in the first place or he was brought there. Citing confusion, they continue on together to find ancient spells written on the walls to keep the Necromancer trapped, but Gandalf states “something didn’t break in, it broke out”.
Radagast’s character is still odd but in this scene alone seems to take on more of the “is he on mushrooms?” rather than more of a children’s book character portrayed in An Unexpected Journey.
While that sneak peak clearly happened at the end of the video shown, other key points in the video were shown.
We got to see Thranduil and Legolas for the first time together. Since Legolas was not originally in the Hobbit, PJ said it seemed only natural to include him and be able to show off the story of the Elves of the Woodland Realms. For those unaware Legolas is the son of Thranduil but has a very different philosophy against his father’s hatred of the Dwarves as is evident in The Lord of the Rings.
Speaking of Orlando Bloom, the actor who plays Legolas was one of the actors who took part in the “Ask Peter Live” segment in which Bloom asks “What part of Middle Earth are you most looking forward to seeing on the big screen”?
Because most of the film is filmed behind green scenes, many of the actors and even including the director doesn’t get the full scope of the work until it’s on the big screen. So when PJ was asked that, he replied quickly with “The confrontation between Smaug and Bilbo. It’s such an iconic Tolkien scene.”
We were able to grab a quick screen-grab of a dragon-less meeting. It was clear PJ is not ready to show off the entire beast yet.
When referring to newcomers, we were shown our first glimpse of Bard the Bowman in action. PJ says showing off an edgier Robin Hood in the world of men is something he had been looking forward to for quite some time.
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Next up we have one of the best parts….Evangeline Lilly is finally shown in full character, acting, costume, you-name-it as Tauriel.
And she got to ask a question herself. She asked PJ “since we all fight in front of green screens mostly, I’ve been dying to see Thranduil’s realm. What will it look like?”
To answer Lilly, Jackson pulled up two drawings and explains it as “more subterranean than traditional Elven kingdoms. It’s grand and extraordinary but it’s not Rivendell“.
The actors who played Merry and Pip were on hand to ask questions. Pippen had the better question as it gave us a preview into a new land we will be seeing in depth, Mirkwood. Formally Greenwood the Great, this is the first signs of Saurmon and the ring’s evil power starting to creep in on what’s good in the world. Here’s a couple pictures Jackson showed us that would be shown in the next Hobbit installment.
As well as answering a question from superfan Stephen Colbert then in turn criticize him for his coffee mug choices. Apparently the guests of The Colbert Report go home with a very small, but dishwasher proof mug. But if you steal the mug given to guest to drink out of on the show like Jackson did, the cup is much bigger but might have been drawn on with water color paints because the Colbert logo washed off within a couple tries.
I wish I had more screenshots to share with you. The video itself should release soon and when it does, I’ll post it up here as well but until then, that video is on lockdown and can’t be viewed with my dvd release code anymore.
The preview trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will release over the summertime while the movie itself hits theaters in December.
UPDATE! Someone posted the new scene here
