Latest news from The Hobbit

It’s a little while since I posted about The Hobbit so I thought it was about time to have a look at the latest rumours and confirmations.

As well as the usual suspects – Empire, Total Film, Den of Geek etc – credit is very much due to the brilliant TheOneRing.net

About 10 years ago I would regularly visit the website. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring had just been released and I would regularly check the website to find out more about my new favourite film. It was founded in 1999 by “a group of like-minded Tolkien fans so anxious for the coming Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films that they were gathering up every scrap of production information to be found.”

From about 2001 to 2004, if not a bit later, I adored The Lord of the Rings and I mean adored. I accumlated a lot of LOTR-related items. Not content with just the books, DVDs and soundtracks, I also had replicas of the one ring and Arwen’s Evenstar pendant. My lovely mum also procured me a shop display stand from WHSmith complete with the Argonath.

Anyway, enough about that. Basically, I was a big fan and TheOneRing.net was a useful source of information.

So, what is the latest news from New Zealand?

First joint rehearsal: done

Straight from the wizard’s mouth we have this news:

“I was at the cast’s first joint rehearsal where Peter Jackson, with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, invited our comments on their script so far. This is as close to bliss as an actor can get. Facing three Oscar-winning screenplay writers who genuinely want us actors to contribute. AND there were piles of snacks on the coffee tables: fresh fruit, NZ cheese and Minties.” – Ian McKellen

Film titles: possibly

Though not officially confirmed, New Line recently registered the following two film titles: The Hobbit: There and Back Again and The Hobbit: An/The Unexpected Journey. As you well know, ‘There and Back Again’ is the subtitle to the novel, The Hobbit. It is an obvious choice and, in my opinion, a good one. I much prefer these titles than simply ‘Part 1’ and ‘Part 2’.

Dwarf boot camp: started

James Nesbitt – Bofur – told ContactMusic.com at the beginning of March:

“We haven’t started filming, we got here mid-January and we were supposed to rehearse, doing lots of horse-riding and framing and stunts and all that, but then Peter got ill, he had a perforated ulcer, so filming was delayed for a few weeks. Filming starts in about three weeks and I start in a month, but it’s been great, so I’ve had lots of time off… A typical day will be a little bit of training, doing a bit of that, trying to get strong, and then doing lots of stunt fights and movement, then going out and horse-riding. I mean, it’s basically playing is what we’re doing.”