Good day to you all folks, one and all!
Welcome home to another wayfaring excursion into the heart of nerd-dom!
Today we have more treats in store, specifically (as you might have already guessed!) treats relating to the still-in-production and VERY highly anticipated prequels to the epic “Lord of the Rings” trilogy (hereafter referred to as LotR) by Peter Jackson.
Fans have been waiting with bated breath and twitching eagerness to get glimpses of this new venture by the already legendary film-maker and now there are things worth sharing!
With his success on the LotR series, Jackson has shown that he has not only the skill and talent to pull of these adaptations, but also a basic love for the originals and desire to do them justice – it is this last part that shows in his work so far and garners him the respect of fans and peers alike, it also gives a certain confidence to this new venture.
Now for those not aware of this bit (what cave have you been hiding in?!?), the book being adapted is “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien, arguably the most beloved and respected fantasy writer in history. It serves as a prequel to the story that we all have read, watched and loved in LotR and tells of the extraordinary journey undertaken by Bilbo Baggins along with an adventuring troop of Dwarves and Gandalf the Grey.
It is a journey that is exciting, entertaining, enlightening and for Bilbo, completely unwanted and bothersome. But in the end it is an amazing story and leads us to how Bilbo found the One Ring, the trinket which is at the centre of the entire LotR saga.
I’m sure you are all as excited about seeing what the folks working on this movie have created – there’s yet time for that as Jackson elected to split the story into two parts: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (out in December 2012) and The Hobbit: There And Back Again (due December 2013).
In the meantime we have some imagery from the movies, specifically the entire line-up of Dwarves as well as Bilbo Baggins himself.
First up we have the extremely talented and exceptionally funny straight-man, Martin Freeman as Bilbo – an inspired bit of casting in my view. Many folks may not know him off-hand, he is currently playing Watson in the TV hit series Sherlock and was great as the confounded Arthur Dent in The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.
Next up we have this awesome group shot of all the Dwarves – you can actually download this image as its pretty high resolution!
To clarify who is who, I’ll try and do it full order from left to right: Jed Brophy as Nori, Dean O’Gorman as Fili, Mark Hadlow as Dori, James Nesbitt as Bofur, Peter Hambleton as Gloin, Graham McTavish as Dwalin, Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield (center), Ken Stott as Balin, John Callen as Oin, Stephen Hunter as Bombur, William Kircher as Bifur, Adam Brown as Ori and Aidan Turner as Kili! …phew! that was tiring…
Lastly we have as a treat for fans, a glimpse of one of the returning stars, Ian McKellan as the wily Gandalf the Grey!
There are other returning favourites as well – Hugo Weaving as Elrond of Rivendell and Orlando Bloom as Legolas, son of the king of the Wood-elves. Bloom’s inclusion has been a bit of a sour note for some fans, but honestly, so long as they don’t skew the original story much to give him needless screen time I wouldn’t let it bother me too much.
And that much faith I do retain in Jackson for now. It promises to be a rollicking grand adventure and with information and looks for Beorn, the Necromancer, Bard of Dale and of course the old worm himself – Smaug – yet to come, there is much for us all to look forward to in the year ahead till the big day!
Cheers!
One Happy Monk's Reviews 
I loved the book. 🙂
Me too! I even bought the painted graphic novel – its amazing!
So what do you think of the characters looks and all? Satisfactory?