If you bought a copy of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, last night you were treated to a special live presentation of Peter Jackson talking about the upcoming sequel, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.  In addition, Jackson was joined by stars Luke Evans, Stephen Fry, and Lee Pace as well as The Lord of the Rings cast members Orlando Bloom (who also appears in Smaug), Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monaghan as well as special surprise appearance by Tolkien super-fan Stephen Colbert, who has a cameo in The Hobbit trilogy.  In the presentation, Jackson showed off new concept art, behind-the-scenes video, and a scene from the film.

Hit the jump for more including when we’ll see the first trailer.  The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opens in 3D on December 13th.

Update: WB has asked us to take down the images. 

Say what you will about the merits of high frame rate, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has provided some amazing visual and sound effects achievements. Now, two new featurettes have been released that take you behind the scenes of Peter Jackson’s epic adventure film and show you how much effort went in to those creations. Whether it’s the practical costumes and make-up of the Hobbit, Dwarf, Elf or Wizard characters, or the purely digital creations of Trolls, Orcs and Gobilns, the visual effects continue to exist on the leading edge of technology. And while Adam Chitwood, Matt Goldberg and I disagreed on the effectiveness of some of the visuals in The Hobbit, each of us was on board with the score, musical cues and sound effects in the film. Hit the jump to check out two featurettes that delve into these arts (presuming you’ve seen the film already). 

Technology will march forward.  That march usually involves something getting trampled along the way.  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is underfoot of  horrible 48fps 3D, also known as HFR 3D (High Frame Rate 3D).  Billed as a technology to sharpen 3D and reduce the headaches it can cause, HFR 3D has crippled Peter Jackson‘s return to Middle-earth.  Without the atrocious visuals, Jackson’s film is still slightly repetitive and bloated, but the magic mostly remains intact.  But under HFR 3D, the journey looks like a cheap soap opera on fast forward with crappy digital effects.

If you’re still hungry for more footage from Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and can’t wait until it opens this Friday, then you’ll enjoy this new clip featuring the company of Dwarves singing a melancholy tune. It’s lovely out of context, but becomes much more powerful once you’re in the thick of it and have seen the Dwarves’ backstory.

We’re exactly one month away from the debut of Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad and a new TV spot has been released to remind you of that fact. This piece shows off more footage from the crime drama that sets the villainous gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) against the combined handsomeness of Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling. Hit the jump to check out both videos. 

Our return to Middle Earth is now just over a week away, but if you can’t wait that long a 13-minute preview/featurette for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has landed online to quench your thirst for all things Tolkein.  The preview boasts a great deal of new footage and interviews with the cast (including Elijah Wood) and director Peter Jackson.

Hit the jump to watch the featurette, and click here to read Dave’s review of the film.  The pic stars Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett and Andy Serkis, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in 3D December 14^th.

As the release date for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey draws ever nearer, more and more content is being released to remind you of that fact. In addition to a new TV spot that shows off a bit of how Dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) got his name, Entertainment Weekly has also released four collector’s covers featuring the film’s major stars. The new issue, which will be available starting December 7th, also promises a look ahead at the next installment in the trilogy, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett andAndy Serkis, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in 3D December 14^th. Hit the jump to check out the new TV spot and magazine covers. 

With Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey set to open worldwide later this month, Warner Bros. has just opened the floodgates of Hobbit footage by releasing six clips and now they’ve provided us with twenty minutes of behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the film.  If you’re curious what it was like on set, the footage is loaded with some awesome stuff including Peter Jackson directing Andy Serkis as Gollum with Martin Freeman, all the dwarves with Bilbo in Bag End, Elijah Wood and Ian Holm in Bag End, Jackson directing Ian McKellen as Gandalf as well as Jackson directing Christopher Lee!  Trust me, if you’re a Lord of the Rings fan, you’re going to love this footage.

Obviously, if you’re trying to stay spoiler free, I advise you skipping this footage until you’ve seen The Hobbit.  Hit the jump to watch and here’s Dave’s review (he thought it was great).

Warner Bros. has released six new clips from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  I don’t know what’s in the clips because I’ve gone dark on the film and want to see as much of it as unspoiled as possible.  But that’s just me.

Hit the jump to check out the clips.  Click on the respective links for Dave’s review (my review will go up the day before the film opens), Steve’s set visit, and his interviews with Peter Jackson, Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, and Weta Workshop Head Richard Taylor.  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in 3D on December 14th.

In our cinematic age of superhero and sci-fi films, director Peter Jackson is doing his part to shoulder the fantasy genre with a return to Middle Earth in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The first in a trilogy of films adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” An Unexpected Journey sets out to tell the tale of titular protagonist Bilbo Baggins and a company of Dwarves on a quest to reclaim their ancestral home from the grip of the fearsome dragon, Smaug. The film also serves to establish an origin point for the events leading up to and through Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a classic adventure quest in the making; packed with colorful characters, gorgeous settings and plenty of action, the only setbacks are technical ones.

Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett and Andy Serkis, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in 3D December 14^th. Hit the jump for my review.

Just after The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’s director Peter Jackson talked about the creature design of the dragon Smaug in this interview, it looks as if we’ve got our first (brief and blurry) glimpse of the beast. Two new TV spots landed recently: one features a new bit of dialogue between Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and Gollum (Andy Serkis), the other features a bit of the destruction caused by the fire-breather. Smaug, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, is expected to appear briefly in the first film and should feature heavily in the second, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Also starring Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen and Hugo Weaving, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens December 14th. Hit the jump to check out the new TV spots. 

A new TV spot for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has gone online. It features Ian Holm reprising his role as an older Bilbo Baggins. Seen with Elijah Wood, this short spot gives us a glimpse at what is likely to be an opening scene from the picture. If you want more in depth information about The Hobbit trilogy, director Peter Jackson previously recorded a video interview in which he discusses creature designs for the orcs, goblins and a bit about the cameo of the dragon, Smaug, who will briefly appear in the first film. The discussion is well-timed, since The Hobbit was just announced at having earned a VFX Oscar nomination.

Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage and Hugo Weaving, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens December 14th. Hit the jump to watch the new TV spot and to read up on what Jackson had to say. 

IMAX has taken to rewarding their die-hard midnight audiences with exclusive posters.  Their latest batch is for the IMAX 3D release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  The set of four posters features Bilbo (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), and Gollum (Andy Serkis).  The posters also have the film’s title written in dwarvish or elfish or some other language that author J.R.R. Tolkien made up.  You can also see that Gollum is clearly jealous that he doesn’t have a sword to hold up in front of his face.

Hit the jump to check out the posters, and click here for a list of participating theaters.  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens December 14th.

Well here’s an interesting twist.  Bryan Singer has tweeted that Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart have joined X-Men: Days of Future Past, which is supposedly a sequel not to X-Men: The Last Stand, but X-Men: First Class.  So how will they be used?  There are a couple of possibilities I can think of off the top of my head.  First, they’ll just be a couple of cameos used as a framing device, so that Professor X and Magneto are looking back at the events of the new movie.  When these remembrances would occur in terms of the original trilogy is a bit fuzzy since Last Stand ends on the borderline of the status quo [spoilers] (Magneto loses his powers, but not really; Professor X dies, but not really).

Hit the jump for more speculation.  Singer also tweeted that James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult will all return.  No mention on First Class‘ other cast members.  Filming on the upcoming sequel is set to begin early next year.

If are looking for some Hobbit content, you came to the right place because I have something for all tastes:

• A featurette sponsored by Denny’s that understandably focuses on the boorish feast of the dwarfs.
• Four posters.
• An image of Bilbo (Martin Freeman), Fili (Dean O’Gorman), and Kili (Aidan Turner)
• Set photos that provide our first look at Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman.

Hit the jump for everything.  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey kicks off the trilogy on December 14.

We have 17 awesome new character posters from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to share with you today.  They run the gamut of characters from Hobbits, to Dwarves, to Elves, to Humans, to…whatever the hell Gollum has become.  The design for each of the Dwarves is of particular interest because of the challenge of making each of them unique and memorable.  Be sure to check out Steve’s incredible set visit experience for more information on the upcoming epic film from director Peter Jackson.

Starring Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood and Andy Serkis, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens on December 14th.  Hit the jump to check out the new posters.