How do you prefer your Elijah Wood: as a young and innocent Hobbit or as a bloodthirsty stalker and serial killer?  If it’s the latter, you’ll enjoy the first six minutes of director Franck Khalfoun’s Maniac.  The remake of William Lustig’s 1980 horror thriller features Wood as a mannequin store owner who develops a nasty obsession with pretty young women, whom he kills and scalps.  The previously released trailers (here and here) show off some of the violence, but the first six minutes of the film are a slow build to the film’s first kill.  A lot of tropes are on display (only dumb and pretty girls are targeted by serial killers, after all) but something about Wood as the stalker/killer makes this extra creepy (see Sin City).  I’m also digging the soundtrack sampling, which reminds me a bit of Drive.  Hit the jump to watch the first six minutes of Maniac, opening in 2013. 

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.

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.

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. 

Although Elijah Wood will be appearing as Frodo in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, this new NSFW international trailer for the Maniac remake suggests that the One Ring has done irreparable damage to his psyche.  A contemporary re-imagining of William Lustig’s 1980 slasher flick, Maniac stars Wood as Frank, a shy owner of a mannequin store with a fetish for stalking and scalping young women.  The Franck Khalfoun-directed remake appears to be told from the point of view of Frank as the new trailer clearly shows.

Also starring America Olivo, Liane Balaban and Nora Arnezeder, Maniac is currently touring the festival circuit.  Hit the jump to watch the new trailer.

We’ve got a couple casting stories coming your way.  First up, new Bond girl Berenice Marlohe (who’s quite good in Skyfall) has joined Terrence Malick‘s untitled Austin-based music project, which isn’t to be confused with his other film, Knight of Cups, even though both films share actors such as Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and Natalie Portman.  THR has no details on Marlohe’s character, which isn’t surprising since there are almost no details on the movie other than it’s a story of “sexual obsession and betrayal” involving two intersecting love triangles.  Marlohe will shoot the film concurrently while doing press for Skyfall.

Hit the jump for casting on Timecrimes director Nacho Vigalondo‘s intriguing next picture, Open Windows.

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. 

A couple of quick casting announcements:

• Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy) will produce and star in the horror picture, Cooties, from screenwriter Leigh Whannell (Saw).
• Josh Duhamel (Transformers) is in negotiations to join You’re Not You, starring Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry) and Emmy Rossum (The Day After Tomorrow), directed by Georce C. Wolfe (Nights in Rodanthe).

Hit the jump for more on both pictures. 

A batch of new images from Peter Jackson’s upcoming The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has landed online, giving us our first look at Elijah Wood reprising his role as Frodo.  We previously saw Wood in costume in one of the earlier Hobbit production videos that Jackson shared from the set, but this is our first look at the actor in character in the film.  The appearance is likely a brief one, as we saw Ian Holm reprising his Bilbo role in the first trailer. He began recounting his adventures that comprise The Hobbit as part of what looks to be a frame story, so it’s safe to assume that Frodo is part of this “Storytime with Bilbo.”  The images also feature Ian McKellan as Gandalf and Martin Freeman as our hero, Young Bilbo.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in 3D on December 14th, followed by The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug on December 13th, 2013 and The Hobbit: There and Back Again July 18th, 2014.

When director Peter Jackson touted the high frame rate of 48 frames per second for his upcoming fantasy epic, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, we were understandably excited.  However, the reality of the technology had the unexpected consequence of looking too real, as if one were standing on set watching a movie being filmed.  While Warner Bros. still believes that 48fps is the way of cinematic future, they’re being careful with their first major release by limiting the sites that will screen The Hobbit at the higher frame rate.  There is talk of expanding the release of future installments in 48fps dependent on audience reaction.  Hit the jump for more.

A new trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has gone online.  As it’s only subtly different from the one that was previously released, folks are referring to this one as The Hobbit 1.1.  Regardless, I’ll take any new footage of Martin Freeman and Ian McKellan I can get at this point.

The film also stars Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis, Luke Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, and Stephen Fry.  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released on December 14, 2012.  Hit the jump to check out the new trailer.

The latest video blog for director Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has gone up, and it’s quite the treat.  At the film’s Comic-Con panel (you can read my recap right here), Jackson debuted a new video blog that focuses on the final days of principal photography.  A portion of that blog is now available to the general public, along with some new footage at the beginning that documents Jackson’s trip to Comic-Con and the cast’s experience at Nerd Fest 2012.  It’s a nice watch for those that were unable to make the trek to San Diego, and it gives a sort of “behind-the-scenes” look at what filmmakers go through when attending The Con.

The Hobbit portion of the blog gives us some great looks at the city of Dale, the Goblin sets, Beorn’s house, as well as our first peeks at actors Sylvester McCoy as Radagast the Brown and Barry Humphries as Gorkin the Goblin King.  Hit the jump to watch for yourself.

When a man walks around in a dog costume at Comic-Con, hardly anyone blinks an eye, and perhaps the reason why is that Wilfred, the FX comedy starring Elijah Wood and Jason Gann, is a good fit for the pop culture event.  On the show, Wood plays Ryan, a former lawyer struggling with manic depression, who offers to watch his neighbor’s dog, Wilfred (Gann), as a way to get to know her better, but to Ryan, Wilfred is a man dressed in a dog suit.

The second season is already underway, and its dark humor and clever dialogue has attracted the attention of some big-time guest stars, including Robin Williams, who appeared in the first episode as Ryan’s therapist.  Other guest stars this season will include Dwight Yoakam and Mary Steenburgen.  Elijah Wood, Jason Gann, Fiona Gubelmann (who plays Ryan’s neighbor, Jenna) and Dorian Brown (who plays Ryan’s sister, Kristen) spoke with members of the press about how the rest of Season 2 will unfold.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

Greetings, Programs!  Room 6A on Friday morning was treated to an in-depth and detailed look at the upcoming episodes of TRON: Uprising, one of my favorite animated shows on television right now.  If you loved the look and feel of TRON: Legacy, this show definitely has you covered.  However, for those that really wanted the mythology of Tron explored, this show fits that bill as well.  The show picks up not long before Legacy and tells the story of Tron’s first renegade alliance with a fellow program.  For fans, we were treated to a sneak peek at an excellent episode that will showcase how Tron got his distinctive scar and how he eventually turned bad.  Hit the jump for a full panel recap.

Continuing on with this massively exciting day in Hall H at Comic-Con 2012, director Peter Jackson brought us some new footage from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey as well as some looks at scenes from the second part of the adaptation, There and Back Again.  Jackson shot his two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein’s novel in 3D at 48 frames-per-second, and following the mixed reaction from CinemaCon I was really hoping to be able to judge the footage myself.  Alas, Jackson opted to screen the new footage in 2D and at 24fps.  Nevertheless, we still got to see footage from Jackson’s return to Middle Earth and hear from the lovely Andy Serkis, Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood and more.

Hit the jump for my full recap of the panel.