Last week, folks who bought a home copy of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey were given a code where they could participate in a live-event promoting The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.  During the event, Peter Jackson showed some clips, behind-the-scenes footage, concept art, and took some questions.  We showed you some images from the event, but Warner Bros. quickly had us take them down, so I hope you got a chance to see the them.  I know I’ll never look at life the same way again.  As minor consolation to those who didn’t see the event, Jackson has posted a six-minute excerpt where he reveals some behind-the-scenes footage, talks about handling a middle chapter, explains the geography of the journey compared to The Lord of the Rings, and takes issue with Stephen Colbert‘s mugs.

Hit the jump to check out the video.  The film stars Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Stephen Fry, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, and Richard Armitage.  The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opens in 3D on December 13th.

Put Tom Hanks in a sketch and he’s going to be golden.  I’m surprised Saturday Night Live doesn’t have a constant rotation of Hanks, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin.  Hanks showed up on The Colbert Report for some good Halloween fun…or at least that’s what Stephen Colbert was led to believe.  Instead, we see that kids this year don’t care about dressing up as The Avengers for Halloween.  The kids are all about Tom Hanks’ movies, including Cloud Atlas.  It’s a great sketch with an awesome cameo at the end.

Hit the jump to check it out.  Cloud Atlas opens today, and maybe you should go see it.

It seems as if pseudo-Conservative talk show pundit and comedian Stephen Colbert may be joining the cast of J.R.R.Tolkien’s beloved characters in Peter Jackson’s upcoming The Hobbit trilogy.  This is completely unconfirmed and more for fun speculation at this point, but Colbert talked about his visit to The Hobbit set in a recent interview and neither confirmed nor denied a possible cameo.  He did confess to being a Tolkien fan, however, and if that enthusiasm proved enough to sway Jackson, there’s already a precedent set for a Colbert cameo. Hit the jump to see what Colbert had to say.

[Update: THR confirms that Colbert will indeed be making a cameo in The Hobbit, but he won't appear in this fall's An Unexpected Journey so keep an eye out for Colbert in The Desolation of Smaug and/or There and Back Again.]

Casting news updates at a glance:

• Stephen Colbert (Monsters vs Aliens) and Allison Janney (Phineas and Ferb) have been cast in the DreamWorks animated production of Mr. Peabody and Sherman, starring Ty Burrell (Modern Family) and Max Charles (The Amazing Spider-Man) voicing the title roles.
• Ian McShane (Snow White and the Huntsman) will join Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead), Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation) and Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) in dance-off comedy, Cuban Fury.

Hit the jump for more.

I’ve come to discover that every generation thinks their Saturday Night Live cast was the best.  I would argue that the cast of SNL may be great, but it’s the sketches that are problematic because the it’s simply the best that the writers can churn out in a week and that’s usually not enough to sustain a 90-minute TV show.  However, one of the most reliable sketches in the show’s history was TV Funhouse’s “The Ambiguously Gay Duo”.  For those unfamiliar with the sketch (and there hasn’t been a new one in years), it had superheroes Ace and Gary (voiced by Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell) whose acts of heroism were ambiguously homosexual. Yes, it was a one-note joke, but it was such a great parody of superhero cartoon shows that it just worked brilliantly.

But since every superhero is going live-action these days, it only stands to reason that Ace and Gary should be thrust into the real world.  Last night’s SNL cast Jon Hamm and Jimmy Fallon as the duo with Carell and Colbert playing two of the villains along with host and former Daily Show co-star Ed Helms.  Hit the jump to check out the great sketch.

On their respective programs last night, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announced that they were holding competing rallies on October 30th.  The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is hosting the “Rally to Restore Sanity” while The Colbert Report will be holding the “March to Keep Fear Alive”.  Both rallies, while both very real, are intended to parody Glenn Beck’s recent “Restoring Honor” rally that took place at the end of August.  Like Beck’s, both Stewart and Colbert’s rally will be in Washington, D.C. although October 30th hold no immense historical significance. Hit the jump to watch videos of the announcements on last night’s Daily Show and Colbert Report.  Click here for more on the “Rally to Restore Sanity” and click here for more on the “March to Keep Fear Alive”.

The folks who went to Conan O’Brien’s Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour last night at Radio City Music Hall got a special treat as fellow late-night hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert came on stage for an epic dance-off.  It ends in comic tragedy.  Seriously, it’s pretty funny.  Hit the jump to check it out.

If you had any fears that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and/or The Colbert Report would be going away anytime soon, you can now put those fears to rest.  Comedy Central has announced in a press release that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have had their contracts extended to remain the hosts of their respective shows.  Stewart’s new contract has him staying as the executive producer, writer, and host of The Daily Show through June 2013 while Colbert will keep those respective roles on The Colbert Report through the end of 2012.

Both shows have won numerous awards, all of them deserved.  As the mainstream media swirls further down the toilet of pre-constructed narratives and simplistic analysis, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have had to become the watchers of the watchmen.

Hit the jump to check out the full press release.