Watch Tomorrow's THE HOBBIT Fan Event Live Stream HERE at 5pm!

As Warner Bros. gears up for next month's big release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the studio will host a special world wide live fan event tomorrow afternoon with stars from the film participating from four theater locations in New York, London, Los Angeles and New Zealand.

NerdyRottenScoundrel.com will be streaming the event to you live as it happens at 5pm EST / 8pm PST as well, so check back here tomorrow!

CNN's Anderson Cooper will host the event from New York City, and will be joined by Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield) and Orlando Bloom, who reprises his The Lord of the Rings role of Legolas. Bloom is currently on Broadway in Romeo & Juliet, and unfortunately Ian McKellen (also on Broadway with Patrick Stewart in Waiting for Godot) is not on tomorrow's bill.  

Lost's Evangeline Lilly, who joins The Hobbit cast as a new character, the Elf warrior Tauriel, will be based in Los Angeles. 

New cast members Lee Pace (the Elf King Thranduil) and Luke Evans (Bard the Bowman) join Andy Serkis (Gollum) from London. 

It wouldn't be a Middle Earth worthy event without Peter Jackson, who will be in Wellington, New Zealand.

Expect to see some new footage from the film, a Q&A from the cast and film makers, as well as some surprises to ramp up expectations for the movie. Maybe Ian McKellen will make an unannounced appearance from New York...

The cast will be led by Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey, Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield. The ensemble cast features Benedict Cumberbatch (Smaug), Evangeline Lilly(Tauriel), Lee Pace (Thranduil), Luke Evans (Bard), Ken Stott (Balin), James Nesbitt (Bofur), and Orlando Bloom (Legolas). The film also stars (in alphabetical order) John Bell, Manu Bennett, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Ryan Gage, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Lawrence Makoare, Sylvester McCoy, Graham McTavish, Dean O’Gorman, Mikael Persbrandt, and Aidan Turner.

Directed by Peter Jackson, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was shot in 3D 48 frames-per-second. The film will be released on December 13th in High Frame Rate 3D (HFR 3D) in select theaters, as well as 2D and 3D formats, and additional IMAX screens.

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Andy Serkis Shares Behind-The-Scenes Secrets of 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which has amassed over $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales since its release in December, makes its debut for home viewing via 3D Blu-ray and DVD today with an impressive amount of bonus features. Director Peter Jackson returned to New Zealand to film the highly anticipated prequel trilogy to The Lord of the Rings, and fans returned to theaters in droves to see what he had up his sleeve, and we have two more chapters on deck for December 2013 and 2014.

You can read my review of the film, as presented in 3D and 48 frames per second here.

I was thrilled to cover the press junket in New York City in December as a producer for Access Hollywood, and had the opportunity to talk to Peter Jackson, Andy Serkis, Sir Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage in one-on-one interviews.

Below are excerpts from the Andy Serkis chat, he is always enthusiastic to talk about the technical behind-the-scenes magic that provide the visual backbone for huge fantasy films like this. I had previously geeked out with him during an interview for Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011, you can see some of that here.

This time we chatted up the performance capture involved for bringing Gollum to life and how the technology has improved over the years, the crucial 12-minute cave scene featuring Gollum and Bilbo Baggins, his dual role on the set as actor and Second Unit Director, and how he deals with fans who feel the need to do their best Gollum imitation when they meet him.

SOURCE: AccessHollywood.com

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Ten New Stills From 'The Hobbit' Revealed

In Entertainment Weekly's annual Comic-Con preview issue, the magazine scored ten new stills from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first installment of the epic two-part 3-D prequel to big screen The Lord Of The Rings trilogy set for a highly anticipated release on December 14th.

In addition to the cover featuring Sir Ian McKellan (reprising his role as Gandalf the Grey) and Martin Freeman (as Bilbo Baggins), inside the pages the sneak peek at the film reveals a new CGI image of Gollum, Gandalf standing in the Shire, a first look at Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett reprising their roles as the elves Elrond and Galadriel, and a studio portrait of newcomer Richard Armitage in costume as the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield.

In addition to Evangeline Lily and Billy Connelly's inclusion to the cast, confirmed to return from The Lord Of The Rings trilogy in cameo roles are Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins), Ian Holm (elder Bilbo Baggins), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Christopher Lee (Saruman), and Andy Serkis (Gollum and Smegol).

Here is the official synopsis of the film from New Line / Warner Bros.:

The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever…Gollum.

Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

Peter Jackson returns as producer, co-screenwriter, and director of the films, which were shot back to back in New Zealand with the EPIC RED cameras for 3D. Its also worth noting a huge change in visual presentation will be pioneered with this major studio release. Jackson and his team have used 48 frames per second to shoot the film at, whereas the industry standard has been half that, 24 frames per second since the inception of film making. This promises to present a very different visual experience for the two Hobbit films on the big screen.

You can check out here what Elijah Wood had to say about returning to New Zealand and reprising his role as Frodo Baggins from the Sundance Film Festival.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set for December 14. The conclusion of the two-part event film, The Hobbit: There And Back Again, is scheduled to hit theaters in 3D December 13, 2013.

SOURCE: Entertainment Weekly

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