Re: The Desolation of Smaug pre-release thread [2] [SPOILERS]

[Norc]

[Eldorion]

SMAUG DIES!

THORIN DIES!

KILI DIES!

FILI DIES!

BOLG DIES!

GREAT GOBLIN DIES!

BALIN DIES YEARS LATER!

[Eldorion]

Quoting for new page. Sinister is vindicated.

Hobbit EE trailer shows that Smaug will only have two legs.

[Eldorion]

TORn has some spoilery (HEAR THAT NORC? ) speculation on what the official synopsis of DOS means about the film.  The full press release is here:

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2013/10/17/80789-warner-bros-full-synopsis-for-the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-provides-some-plot-hints/

The most obvious cast omissions are Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee and Hugo Weaving. Stephen Fry is also not listed, but I can’t think of that as anything but an inadvertent oversight. I know, it is a flaw in what I’ve written below.

Anyway, just last month, Blanchett seemed to indicate uncertainty about whether she would have any scenes in The Desolation of Smaug. This seems to be a clincher — the absence of the Aussie star from this list almost certainly means the answer is no.

For comparison, here’s the cast credits list from the presser for An Unexpected Journey:

Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf the Grey, the character he played in “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, with Martin Freeman in the central role of Bilbo Baggins, and Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield. Also reprising their roles from “The Lord of the Rings” in “The Hobbit” Trilogy are: Cate Blanchett as Galadriel; Ian Holm as the elder Bilbo; Christopher Lee as Saruman; Hugo Weaving as Elrond; Elijah Wood as Frodo; and Andy Serkis as Gollum. The international ensemble cast of the trilogy also includes (in alphabetical order) Manu Bennett, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Barry Humphries, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Bret McKenzie, Graham McTavish, James Nesbitt, Dean O’Gorman, Conan Stevens, Ken Stott and Aidan Turner.

The absence of Blanchett, Lee and Weaving would mean no new White Council scenes in DOS, no decision to attack Dol Guldur, and certainly no attack on the fortress itself. Thus one concludes that Gandalf will spend the bulk of his time searching for the source of the evil that is corrupting Mirkwood — first in the High Fells, and then in the ruins of Dol Guldur itself. If that’s the case culmination of Gandalf’s scenes may be some dramatic confrontation not with just the Witch-king, but with the re-forming spirit of Sauron — the Dark Lord himself.

TL;DR - They don't think there will be any White Council scenes in DOS, that Gandalf's storyline will consist of trying to find out what's going on in Dol Guldur, and the battle there won't happen until TABA.

[bungobaggins]

TL;DR - They don't think there will be any White Council scenes in DOS, that Gandalf's storyline will consist of trying to find out what's going on in Dol Guldur, and the battle there won't happen until TABA.

That makes the most sense, otherwise there really wouldn't be much left for another movie.

[Lancebloke]

I am boycotting this film until it is on t.v!!

We already know the witch king is more powerful than white Gandalf. Sauron (even weak) should kick grey Gandalfs arse.

[Sinister71]

Quoting for new page.  Sinister is vindicated.

I wasn't gonna say it ...  
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  I WAS RIGHT  

[halfwise]

SMAUG DIES!

THORIN DIES!

KILI DIES!

FILI DIES!

BOLG DIES!

GREAT GOBLIN DIES!

BALIN DIES YEARS LATER!

Goddamit, Eldo.  Whole movie ruined.  I'll go back to watching Gilligan's Island, thank you very much.

[Mrs Figg]

I DON'T EFFING CARE, THAT IS A PRETTY BIG SPOILER! AND IT IS A BLOODY BIG PICTURE!

ITS THE SPOILER THREAD!!!!!!!! sheesh chill.  

[bungobaggins]

I wasn't gonna say it ...  
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  I WAS RIGHT  

[Norc]

oh for fu- oh nevermind..

[Eldorion]

I changed the warning in the thread title to "ABSOLUTELY SPOILERY" so that Norc will suffer no confusion about its contents.

Speaking of which, why are you still in here? You have a spoiler-free thread!

[Norc]

yeah, but there are no one in the spoiler free thread  you're just excluding me .. i wanna be part of the fun too...

[Eldorion]

It's not our fault that you're a spoiler-averse weirdo.

{{{Never change. }}}

[Norc]

[Pettytyrant101]

Interview with Evangeline Lilly-

downpoints- and there are plenty-

"So when I got called and was told, “We’d like you to do The Hobbit”, which was my favorite of all of them when I was a kid– “And we want you to play a character that’s not in the books”, I gulped and hesitated, but then I went, “These guys know this world, and they represent this world so well, that I actually think they’ve earned the right to have a little play.”

And also, I think this book is really, really alpha, it’s very male-driven. It’s all male characters, and they ended up– In the book, there’s not one female character. And if you watch a film from beginning to end, with no women in it, it’s really difficult. I don’t know if any of you feel this way, but it’s like eventually, you see a woman come on screen and you go, “Oh, thank God!”

My character is different from all of the Elves you’ve met before, in that she’s really young. And I keep telling journalists this because I’ve really focused on that in my performance. I’m trying to distinguish her from all of these incredibly sage and wise Elves that have lived for thousands of years. She’s only six hundred years old, she’s just a baby. So she’s a bit more impulsive, and she’s a bit more immature. I think she’s more easily romanticized by a lot of things."

And some stuff that doesnt to my mind cast the production in the best light-

" I haven’t been put on a wire in the stunt hangar, let alone on camera. They won’t put me on a wire. Yesterday, I was doing stunt training, and they went, “Well, there’s a lot of wirework in this one.” I went, “Are you going to put me on a wire?” And I get this lip service, they go, “Well, maybe if we…” And they talk for so long about it. Then at the end of it, I go, “Wait, am I on the wire, or am I not on the wire?” And they just walk away!"

Let me be the first to tell you about this production. Pretty much, there’s new pages every day. There’s a new schedule every day. And for the most part, my biggest scenes, I have been given the night before, often at seven o’clock. And I have two pages of RP and Elvish to memorize, and I am just spinning out. I am completely like– You start to go, “I’m going to be horrible, and they’re going to hate me! I’m supposed to be great, and I’m going to be horrible”, because I’m used to a little bit more prep time and lead time than that.
And then the other thing that happens is, I think Philippa and Fran, who do most of the writing, and then Peter gives it a once-over and gives his notes and they go back to the drawing board"

Seem even the actress has bought the PJ line-

So do you know if your character was the creation of Guillermo, or was it from Fran and Peter and Philippa?

LILLY: It was from Fran and Peter and Philippa. As you probably can assume, they’ve read everything: The Silmarillion, and all the extra that Tolkien wrote about the world and the land. And I think they have just absorbed so much of it, that they have taken elements of different female Elven characters throughout Tolkien’s work, and they have amalgamated those things into one character, which is Tauriel.

Complete interview, if you can stomach it, here-

http://collider.com/evangeline-lilly-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-interview/

[Norc]

i love it when a thread splits so beautifully.

[Sinister71]

I wasn't impressed with her interview at all either petty, nor with Orlando Blooms. All I can say is they are paid actors working this like any other job. Doing what they are told and then having to go out and do positive PR for the project.

If they spoke out against the way Jackson makes films they would be out of a job. par for the course I guess. Point in case is the Three Musketeers film Bloom and Evans did. Such a horrible waste of film IMO but yet they were praising it in their promotions for it.

[Mrs Figg]

listen all Actors and luvvies big up their upcoming films nobody EVER says 'well that was shit working for that idjit' otherwise no one would hire them again. They all toady and smile in the face of it. they all are super nice and upbeat no matter what they really think. that said you can read between the lines most of the time.

[halfwise]

But to her credit, there was this:

Q: You’re playing a character that’s not in the book, so I’m curious– If you could just talk a bit about your perception of her and her character.

LILLY: It would be my pleasure. Because of course, that is the greatest source of my anxiety on this film, is that I’m going to be lynched. I was a die-hard fan of these books before the films ever came out. And when I say die-hard, I wasn’t the person who could speak Elvish, but I really loved them. And I wasn’t actually going to see the original films, because I didn’t think it was possible that a film could represent the books appropriately. So I was protesting, and I wasn’t going to see them. And then my family all took a jaunt together, the entire family, to see the movies, and were like, “What, you’re just going to stay home?” So I saw the movies and was thoroughly impressed that Peter Jackson managed to make my vision of the book come to life, as well as my sister’s and my father’s, and my aunt’s and my uncle’s, everyone’s. It seemed to somehow pan across everyone’s vision, even though we all knew we had to have had different visions of the books.

The rest of the interview I thought was pretty cute. Not sure if you were complaining about her or about hints she dropped about the film, Petty.

[Pettytyrant101]

Surely that only proves her and all her family were wrong?  

If Pj's version was 'her version of the book come to life' she must have read a different book from me.

[Mrs Figg]

she was referring to LOTR so its a pity TH bears no relation in terms of the book coming to life.

[Pettytyrant101]

she was referring to LOTR- Mrs Figg

So was I.

[halfwise]

For me LoTR was maybe 60-70% book come to life, the Hobbit was about 30-40%.

[Pettytyrant101]

I cant agree- take just book1 of Fellowship- almost no book dialogue, no Sackvilles buying Bag End, no Gaffer, no elves, no Farmer Maggot, no Crickhollow, no conspiracy, no Old Forest, no Bombadil, no Barrowdowns, totally different Bree, totally different Barliman, no Nob, no Merry going outside, no Black Breath, no Ferny, no letter form Gandalf, no proper Tale of Luthien, rewritten Weathertop, no dagger piece working its way to Frodos heart, no Glorfindel- I could go on through all the films like that, but wont.
But I feel 60-70% is bloody generous Halfy. And you a mathematician as well