For those of you keeping track at home, here’s the eighth in Peter Jackson’s series of production videos from The Hobbit, giving us crazy sneak peeks of his time at Comic-Con, sets, the last days of shooting, and other goodies.
This time around, we learn less about how the movie is made; the video is more of a hurried tour of a zillion elements. We first see what PJ was up to in San Diego — his arrival at Comic-Con and behind the stage as he and the major stars (including Elijah Wood) make their entrance there at The Hobbit panel. We see a snippet of the final footage that was screened there (Trolls!).
Then we’re back in Middle-earth, er, New Zealand, on set for the final days of the 254-day shoot. We meet Lee Pace as Thranduil, Sylvester McCoy (Radagast), Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Martin Freeman (Bilbo), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), and Barry Humphries (The Great Goblin). There’s a cameo by Orlando Bloom (Legolas) and we get quick visits with each (or most, anyway) of the 13 dwarves — Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, Ori, and Thorin Oakenshield. And sound bites from many of the techies behind the scenes, including John Howe and Alan Lee, the movie’s conceptual artists.
We also receive a lightning-quick tour of the city of Dale set; it looks a bit like the a Tuscan village, say San Gimignano, mixed with the campus of Stanford. There are quick peeks into Beorn’s house (ooh! the wood carvings), a shot of the interior of Radagast’s house (I didn’t even know he lived somewhere), and a couple shots of “Goblin Town” (presumably inside the Misty Mountains). Then tearful goodbyes as the shooting wraps up.
And we also glance at what might be scenes from the second Hobbit movie — dwarves rushing into battle against a green screen, and what’s that at minute 13:40 — a huge, armored, scaly thing that’s either a goblin structure, or a shot of Smaug’s tail or body? What do you think?
