Hot on the heels of today’s teaser trailer debut, Warner Bros. has released a batch of new high-resolution images from director Peter Jackson’s sequel The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.  These photos pretty much lay out the main characters from the second entry in the trilogy adaptation of the beloved J.R.R. Tolkein novel, as we see the return of Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, and Richard Armitage as well as Hobbit newbies Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom, and Luke Evans.

Hit the jump to browse the new images, and click here if you missed the trailer.  The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opens in 2D, 3D, IMAX, and HFR on December 13th.

Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for director Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.  The film is a continuation of the story that began with last year’s An Unexpected Journey, and this trailer gives us a pretty extensive peek at what’s in store for the second installment in Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy.  In addition to the return of Orlando Bloom‘s Legolas, we get a look at the new characters played by Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel), Lee Pace (Thranduil), and Luke Evans (Bard the Bowman), as well as a nice tease of the titular dragon Smaug.  I may be misremembering just how CG-heavy An Unexpected Journey was, but there appears to be a rather exhaustive use of the technology here in Smaug.  Hopefully some of the more spotty-looking shots can be cleaned up in time for December, when audiences will once again be given the opportunity to see The Hobbit at 48 frames-per-second.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer, and click here to check out 8 high-resolution images from the pic.  The film also stars Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, John Bell, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Graham McTavish, Michael Mizrahi, James Nesbitt, Dean O’Gorman, Lee Pace, Mikael Persbrandt, Ken Stott, and Aidan Turner.  The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opens in 2D, 3D, IMAX, and HFR on December 13th.

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). 

I offered a similar sentiment following the tragedy at Aurora, CO back in July and I’ll do the same today: the event that unfolded yesterday in Newtown, CT is inexcusable and genuinely heartbreaking, even from a distance. The optimist in me wants to believe that any negative situation can be used to educate and improve the world we live in going forward. In this case, I’m hopeful but unsure that’s possible. On behalf of everyone here at Collider, I want to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of those who were lost yesterday.

As petty as it may seem, I feel fortunate to be able to offer a bit of diversion to your day with this week’s Top 5. Included in a trailer-heavy rotation this week is a new cut from Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel, The Hobbit interviews with Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis and more, the first trailer for Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim, Andre’s coverage from his Gangster Squad set visit, and the first look at Will Smith and Jaden Smith gallivanting across the human unfriendly Mother Earth found in M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth. A brief recap and link to each will greet you after the jump.

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.

With Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opening this weekend, I recently got to interview some of the cast and filmmakers in New York City and every day this week I’ll be posting an exclusive interview.  Yesterday I posted Andy Serkis and today it’s Richard Armitage, who plays Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, King Under the Mountain.

During the interview, Armitage talked about his reaction to seeing The Hobbit for the first time, what it was like to transform his physical appearance, what’s been the biggest surprise making The Hobbit trilogy, whether or not he is looking forward to the additional filming next year, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

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. 

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.

The first clip and a large batch of high-resolution images from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey have been released.  The clip is quite nice, as it features Ian McKellan’s Gandalf entrusting Martin Freeman’s Bilbo with a very familiar-looking sword.  We’ve seen plenty of money shots in the film’s trailers and TV spots, but this clip highlights one of the softer moments of the film and brings to mind the earnestness that worked so well in The Lord of the Rings.  The new images are also a swell treat for fans, as we’re given a first look at Christopher Lee back as Saruman alongside the angelic Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, as well as The Goblin King and some seriously nasty-looking trolls.

Hit the jump to check out the clip and images.  The film also stars Richard Armitage, Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis, Peter Hambleton, John Callen, Ken Stott, Graham McTavish, James Nesbitt, William Kircher, Aidan Turner, Dean O’Gorman, Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown and Stephen Hunter.  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens December 14th.