CNN's Anderson Cooper will anchor 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 listed 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 (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 participating from 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. And fingers crossed, perhaps 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.
