Some things are just too confusing for a puppy to handle.
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Watch This Puppy Pop A Balloon And Enter An Existential Crisis
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“Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor” doesn’t hit stores until September 30, but we’ve got an advance review of the spectacular new “Lord Of The Rings” game.
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‘Middle-Earth: Shadow Of Mordor’ Is The One Game To Rule Them All
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Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings screenwriter Philippa Boyens is back for another romp in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth playground with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , and she recently sat down with Movieline to talk about the fantasy novel’s adaptation to the screen. Boyens, who is Hobbit director (and co-writer) Peter Jackson’s foremost Tolkien expert — although Stephen Colbert would beg to differ — refers to the Middle Earth creator using the honorific “Professor” and her reverence and esteem for the author are just about as infectious (in a good way, naturally) as Gollum’s “Precious” ring. By the end of the interview, she had us referring to Tolkien as Professor too, as she discussed the changes and adaptations she and her writing partners made to the text, the sad story of Balin the Dwarf, why fans should be very, very excited for 2043, when the copyright runs out on Tolkien’s Middle-Earth compendium, The Silmarillion , and more. From a technical perspective, if you’re not going to have Smaug in this movie you need a secondary antagonist. How did you decide on Azog, and what resonance did he provide for you thematically? You hit the nail on the head because when we were first looking at this as a piece of storytelling, we wanted to get to the dragon. We did try getting to the dragon in one draft, actually. But you had to lose so much along the way. We also understood that the Necromancer is too ephemeral at this moment – too much of a shadowy character that’s not fully understood. It’s a great mystery story, but there’s a big problem because there’s no actual, physical enemy. And yet the dwarves had a very natural one and he was to be found. When Peter [Jackson] talks about taking this chance to tell more of the story, that was one of the pieces that we took — that and Moria. It’s the story of the great hatred between the orcs and the dwarves, where it came from and what was informing it. And, also, I mean, Azog the Defiler. What a great name! You kind of can’t beat that as a name. Balin is telling the story of Azog and the Battle at Moria at a point in the film. I have to be honest, I half expected him to say – I must take this back someday if I ever get the chance! “It will be mine!” It brings up the question of – well, obviously, Tolkien wrote these sequentially. You’re going the other way around. The temptation for prequelitis must have been overwhelming at times. That’s a great word. And no. But you do want some level of resonance because you know the truth is we did make Lord of the Rings first. The relationship between Gandalf and Galadriel is something I particularly loved doing. People forget that Cate Blanchett and Ian Mckellen were never in a single scene together except at the very, very end. Gandalf was fallen by the time the company got to Lothlorien. Yeah, and I think that moment – kids especially are gonna come to this and [ The Hobbit] is going to be their first introduction to Middle Earth and then they will receive the rest of the story as a sequel. And that moment where she says ‘Where is Gandalf for I very much desire to speak with him’ to the Fellowship and they have to tell her that he died is going to be incredibly powerful. So…yeah, a little bit of prequelitis. Just a smidge. And Balin. Seeing Balin’s tomb in Fellowship will have more resonance as well. After two more movies especially – And Ori! Little Ori is the one who wrote “drums, drums in the deep: they are coming.'” I think probably because we’ve done Lord of the Rings it wasn’t that hard. We had Gollum . This wasn’t Gollum that you meet for the first time. We knew him. We understood how to make that internal conflict he has with Smeagal work. We had Andy Serkis the actor. Why wouldn’t you use that? It’s the great gift. The fact that Gandalf disappears, we know where he goes and what he’s dealing with. It was interesting – a lot of pure Tolkien fans loved in Lord of the Rings that, instead of a piece of reportage, we actually followed Gandalf to Isengard. And [showed his] one-on-one with Saruman instead of merely having Gandalf tell everybody what he’s been up to at the Council of Elrond. We got to see it, and we get to do the same thing this time as he goes to Dol Godur.
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Peter Jackson’s return to Middle-earth is getting middling critiques. By Kara Warner “The Hobbit” cast Photo: Warner Bros./ New Line Cinema
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‘Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’: The Reviews Are In!
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Standing well over 6′ tall, with an athletic frame and impeccably coiffed hair, Richard Armitage the silhouette screams matinee idol , which makes it all the more impressive that Richard Armitage the person screams “Dwarf!” But, then, this isn’t your older brother’s axe wielding, pipe smoking, occasionally tossed comic relief. As Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of a band of not so merry dwarves looking to reclaim their ancestral homeland from the ravages of the dragon Smaug in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , Armitage takes his first bold, steely-eyed, heroic steps into the world of Middle Earth, embodying with method exactness the badass anti-hero of J.R.R. Tolkien’s original. Before that, though… a little bit of fun. Armitage recently sat down with Movieline in New York City where he revealed the physicality of being a dwarf, his facility for speaking in tongues, his hard fought battle scars, and the number one reason you should always answer an interrupting telephone. Movieline: Here’s what we can do. We can do the entire interview in Khuzdul [the fictional language created by J.R.R. Tolkien for the dwarves of Middle Earth]. Khuzdul! Do you speak dwarvish? I speak some dwarvish. Do you speak it fluently? There isn’t really that much [in The Hobbit ]. Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu! No. You can’t fool me. That’s from Lord of the Rings .* Do you know dwarf sign language? [Huge laughter from Armitage as he crosses one forearm perpendicularly over the other, giving an especially vigorous non-dwarf signal.] Yes, any dwarf could understand that. But, no, this is a real thing. Tolkien made dwarf sign language because, you know, it’s too loud to talk in the mines. Actually, we did work with Terry Notary and we did work on a kind of sign language. That scene in Bag End where Dwalin head butts Balin as a dwarf greeting — it’s a visceral, physical greeting. The language implies [physicality] as well. Physical sort of found its way into the vocal for me. Physical as in changing your body? Is there a physical choreography to being a dwarf? A way to walk? It’s sort of informed by the skeleton of these creatures because they’re not really human. Their center of gravity is much lower, their torsos longer — which was really tough for me because I’m the other way around. I’ve got really long legs and a short body. So all of my belts were down here on my hips, and slowly they work their way up to where your waist is. I was constantly having to pull them down. There were other things we worked on — chewing up the ground as you walk. You know, when a dwarf starts running it takes a long time to stop. They’re very heavy, very stooped trains. They can’t stop immediately. Like, they’ll crash through a wall. Their bone structure is heavy and solid. And those huge boots, which I think are going to be a big fashion statement next year. Why not a trend following all these hot dwarves? [Laughs] Oh yeah, we were baking! Dwarves baking wasn’t what I think these websites that listed ‘hot dwarves’ were thinking. Was there ever advice or conversation with John Rhys Davies [who played Gimli the dwarf in Lord of the Rings ]? No. Was there something in his performance that you ever looked at? No. He came to visit and said hello. But we started from scratch. With this dwarf physicality, were you able to escape unscathed from all these battle scenes? I put my tooth through my lip when we were shooting the Battle of Azanulbizar. You see Thorin fighting six orcs. And we choreographed it on the ground and then filmed it on platforms so everything gets higher by about two feet. I actually smacked myself in the face with the shield and had this huge swollen lip that was bleeding down my neck. I was so angry at myself. You know when you hit yourself? I was so bloody angry. And then Andy [Serkis] came and showed me a mirror. I was like, ‘Oh God.’ He said, ‘Do you want to carry on?’ I said, ‘Yeah, cause it looks good.’ It looked really good. It looked really kind of real. In the original film, both Elijah [Wood] and Andy [Serkis] were able to take props home. If I go to your house will I see Ocarist above the mantle? You have Ocarist in the umbrella stand. Cause I want to be able to pick it up. You also have the shield in the kitchen drawer. And on the wall you have the map and key. I’ve got the full kit. The only thing I wanted was the key. But I was very kindly — [Armitage is cut off when the phone in the hotel room where we are conducting the interview rings, interrupting us.] Do you need to answer that? Maybe I should. It’s Sauron. You can tell by his ring.
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Richard Armitage Talks ‘Hobbit’ And Thorin Oakenshield, Takes A Phone Call From Sauron
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As beloved and popular as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit has been in the seventy plus years since its publication, the simple adventure story has never been much more than prologue, a light and sunny rain compared to the epic hurricane force of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings , the transformative high fantasy quest narrative which C.S. Lewis once said contained “beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron.” The worst thing that could be said about Peter Jackson ‘s fourth cinematic foray into Middle Earth, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , is that it follows suit, being merely good when greatness was anticipated or expected. As with Lord of the Rings , but perhaps never more so than in The Hobbit , Jackson brings a plain earnestness to the material which matches Tolkien’s direct and straightforward narrative voice. There’s awe and wonder to be found beyond The Shire as the eponymous hobbit, Bilbo, (Martin Freeman) and a band of fierce but merry dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), embark on their adventure towards the dragon Smaug’s stronghold deep within The Lonely Mountain, but never any slyness or irony, no winks at the audience behind cynical detachment. (One earnest sequence in particular, in which Bilbo takes his leave of Gollum and then talks of what home means to the dwarves, recalls Sam’s speech at the end of Two Towers and will leave viewers’ hearts aching.) Jackson’s unwillingness to embrace anything other than earnestness in his original Lord of the Rings trilogy is in part what made those films resonate so strongly with early 21st century audiences. They contain silliness and laughter, but a silliness and laughter always carefully calibrated to service a delicate tonal balance. In those films, as in Tolkien’s original works, the story begins in Fellowship with the comical idea of an old hobbit’s birthday party, gradually elevating its register until, by the end of Return of the King , it becomes one of the greatest quest narratives ever filmed (or written). The problem with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey as quest narrative, however, is that, for Tolkien, who wrote the story long before he ever put pen to paper on Lord of the Rings , that register never changes or elevates. Although in later years he would go back and make minor corrections to the original text to reflect updated plot points or characters, what starts with “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” ends quite matter-of-factly in the same style, never going much beyond a simple and unpretentious adventure story for children. Jackson, taking on the task in reverse (creating his Hobbit after his Lord of the Rings ) occasionally missteps in his desire to combine the two stories into a tonally consistent whole, bringing silliness to moments that should be of great portent, and vice versa. For example: Many will point to Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy), with his jackrabbit sled and bird poop-bespotted hair, as an example of comic relief that goes too far. It doesn’t, but the general dottiness of the character comes at a moment in the film of great peril, when it is revealed for the first time that the villainous Necromancer who is troubling the borders of Mirkwood might, in fact, be the villain — the evil Sauron. Tolkien could avoid the confluence, but not Jackson, who in his fierce desire to make The Hobbit as tonally consistent with Lord of the Rings as possible mixes the two and finally pushes his finely-tuned and hard-earned cart over, unbalancing the film in this and other parts as he tries too hard to align it with his earlier work. Where Jackson might occasionally misstep tonally, he takes the reigns from the episodic original and runs with generally fantastic results through several narrative additions, all of which give the characters more agency in their own affairs. After the film’s somewhat meandering first half (which includes two separate dwarf musical numbers), Bilbo and Thorin succeed in, for instance, escaping the trolls and wargs with actual actions and choices, instead of a Deus Ex Gandalf . Though hardcore fans might scoff at the blasphemy of adding anything to the source material, even those things written by Tolkien himself in the appendixes, Jackson succeeds cinematically in pulling off the Orc/Dwarf Battle of Nanduhirion and the fleshing out of Azog as a dominant and recurring adversary. Less successful are scene additions consisting of actors reprising their roles from Lord of the Rings . While the stuff with Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and Sarumon (Christopher Lee) at the White Council works like gangbusters, an early scene where Frodo (Elijah Wood) stands around and does nothing smacks of prequel-itis. Even with all these additions, or perhaps because of them (the film clocks in at a staggering 166 minutes, or about a minute for every two pages of text in the original — and there are two films left) An Unexpected Journey feels less like a self-contained narrative and more like a partial installment, in ways the Lord of the Rings films never did. Like Bilbo reflecting on his long path from The Shire and what it means to fight for a place to call your own, however, returning to Middle Earth feels right . And if it doesn’t quite soar as high in transformative joy or ecstasy as we thought it might… it’s still home. Note : I saw the film in 3-D at 24 fps. The 3-D adds nothing to the film, and is a surcharge to be avoided. READ MORE ON THE HOBBIT (In theaters December 14): ‘Hobbit’ First Review: 48 FPS Is ‘Eye-Popping,’ But Watch Out For The Jar Jar Binks Of ‘LOTR’ WATCH: Peter Jackson’s Hobbit Video Reveals Over Ten Minutes of Behind the Scenes Footage Shawn Adler is a film writer and interviewer based out of NYC. For his in-depth writing on genre films, Shawn was once called “The Harold Bloom of superhero trailers” by the “Hollywood Reporter.” It would be a mistake to simply think that nobody cares about that now. Nobody cared about it then either. You can follow him on Twitter @Lethrup . Follow Shawn Adler on Twitter . 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‘The Hobbit’ 3-D Early Review: Back Again, But Not Quite There
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Let us weep for Rainbow the miniature Hobbit pony, whom animal wranglers on Peter Jackson ‘s Hobbit trilogy say was the first of 27 animals to die while being housed on a production farm filled with “death traps.” “When I arrived at work in the morning, the pony was still alive but his back was broken. He’d come off a bank at speed and crash-landed,” wrangler Chris Langridge told the AP. “He was in a bad state.” Langridge and fellow former and current Hobbit animal wranglers aim to blow the lid off of what they allege were unsafe housing conditions for their animal charges, up to 150 of which were kept at the same Wellington, NZ farm during Hobbit filming. The American Humane Association monitored animal safety on set and investigated the farm following the first few animal deaths, making safety recommendations that were subsequently employed by the production company. Still, it’s hard to ignore the gruesome details of how some of the Hobbit horses, goats, and chickens died. Pour out some mead for these poor creatures, who are grazing for eternity in the Middle Earth in the sky: – Rainbow the miniature, euthanized after suffering a broken back – Claire the horse, who was found with her “head submerged in a stream after it fell over a bluff.” – Zeppelin the horse, whose records say died from natural causes, but: “Smythe said the horse was bloated and its intestines were full of a yellow liquid; he believes it died of digestive problems caused by new feed.” – Six goats and six sheep who perished “after falling into sinkholes, contracting worms or getting new feed after the grass was eaten.” – Twelve chickens who were mauled to death by dogs. – Doofus the horse and Molly the horse, who actually survived after cutting themselves on fencing. Jackson’s camp, meanwhile, is downplaying the death toll. “We do know those deaths were avoidable and we took steps to make sure it didn’t happen again,” said Jackson’s rep. PETA is planning protests at the Hobbit premieres in New Zealand later this month and in the U.S. and the U.K. prior to the December release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey . [AP via EW ]
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Wranglers Say ‘Hobbit’ Animals Suffered Gruesome Deaths On ‘Death Trap’-Ridden Farm
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Also in a round-up of news briefs Tuesday morning, the Academy is set to honor Stanley Kubrick ; the Austin Film Festival announces winners of its Audience Awards; And, a doc spotlighting Levon Helm heads to U.S. theaters. Academy to Honor Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick will be feted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Wednesday November 7th. Hosted by Malcolm McDowell at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, the evening will feature film clips and personal remembrances by friends and collaborators including Paul Mazursky, Ryan O’Neal and Matthew Modine. The tribute is in association with the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA) which is hosting a retrospective. Silver Linings Playbook Wins Austin Film Festival Audience Award The romantic drama by David O. Russell won the Austin Film Festival’s “Marquee Feature Audience Award, while Junk by Kevin Hamedani took the Narrative Feature Audience Award. Joseph Levy’s Spinning Plates and T.C. Johnstone’s Rising From Ashes tied for the Documentary Feature Audience Award. The Muslims Are Coming! by Negin Farsad and Dean Obeidallah took the Comedy Vanguard Audience Award. Kino Lorber Picks Up Levon Helm Doc Ain’t In It For My Health The film is an in-depth and intimate look at music legend Levon Helm who died last April. The NYC-based distributor picked up the film on the heels of a recent “Love for Levon” tribute concert in New Jersey earlier this month where nearly 20,000 fans packed an arena to hear musicians including Roger Waters, Gregg Allman, Mavis Staples, Joe Walsh and Lucinda Williams celebrate his legacy. Kino Lorber is planning an early 2013 release followed by a VOD/home video release in early summer. Around the ‘net… Tom Cruise Teases a Mission: Impossible 5 A fifth installment appears to be in the preliminaries. “I started Mission: Impossible hoping I could make many of them. It’s a character that I can grow with…We’re already working on different images. Talking conceptually. I love traveling around promoting different movies because I’m always looking at different places, and I always walk around to see the city. I look at architecture, subways… coming up with different sequences,” Cruise told the U.K.’s Total Film. Hurricane Sandy Forces Broadway Theaters to Go Dark for Third Day; Region Slammed The shut-down is one day longer than the aftermath of 9/11. Power outages continue to plague Lower Manhattan and the subway is closed again as the city and region deal with the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, THR reports .
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Tom Cruise Hints At Mission: Impossible 5; Hurricane Sandy Forces Broadway Shut For 3rd Day: Biz Break
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The Hobbit caught some negative reaction when 10 minutes of unfinished footage played at the CinemaCon convention earlier this year in Las Vegas. But Sir Ian McKellen , who stars in The Lord of the Rings prequel, has defended the anticipated film directed by Peter Jackson , after early criticism from fans flared over how it looks in 3-D. Some viewers complained that the footage appeared “un-cinematic” and that it had “made-for-TV” quality. But McKellan, who plays the wizard Gandalf in the forthcoming film, said he believes audiences will be impressed by the feature’s aesthetics. “I’ve seen enough of it to know it’s going to be just as exciting as Lord of the Rings ,” he said via BBC . “In fact in some senses it’s more exciting because it’s in three dimensions.” McKellan said the sensation audiences will experience will bring them closer to Middle Earth, drawing fans into the story as never before. “It’s not the sort of crude 3-D that comes out of the screen. Rather it brings you into Middle Earth. You see round the corners. You see everything,” said McKellen. For his part, Jackson said he didn’t it surprising by the reaction the footage received. He shot The Hobbit at a rate of 48 frames per second which compares to the industry standard of 24 frames. “It’s not absolutely complete yet but Peter Jackson’s very pleased with it,” added McKellan. Along with McKellan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Evangeline Lilly star, while Orlando Bloom returns as Legolas and Elijah Wood takes on Frodo again. The three films are a prequel to The Lord of the Rings series. The first installment, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will open Stateside December 14th. Part two, The Desolation of Smaug will open in 2013, while There and Back Again heads out in 2014. [ Source: BBC ]
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The Hobbit Gets Defense From Sir Ian McKellan
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We’d already caught a glimpse of Snow White and the Huntsman ‘s Crayola-dappled Middle Earth before director Rupert Sanders let on about his darker vision for the fairy tale. But now, with a latest trailer making the rounds, it can be confirmed: SWATH ! Pretty dark! Not a whole lot to add, really, except that despite all appearances, I’d still take Charlize Theron’s character in Young Adult over her heart-hungry Queen in an Evil-Off, 10 times out of 10. [via Xfinity TV ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
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New Snow White and the Huntsman Trailer: Yep, Pretty Dark
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