After days of closed door talks between New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Warner Bros. executives, the verdict is out today:

THE HOBBIT WILL BE MADE IN NEW ZEALAND.

Mr.John Key has only minutes ago announced at a press conference in the Beehive theaterette that Sir Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films will indeed be filmed in New Zealand.

Source

Apparently the NZ government is funding the film.

Uhm. It almost sounds as if they mean business this time. Could it be? Could it be they're actually making this movie? Do I need to de-dust all my LOTR icons?

Peter Jackson and company might still be planning to shift the Shire after all the union problems with The Hobbit, but now we know who will be playing the lead. And it’s someone who has been rumoured, discounted due to scheduling, talked to us about it and then finally found space in his busy working life to head off to Middle-earth. Ladies and gentlemen, your new Bilbo Baggins is… Martin Freeman. You may start with the “told you so” at your leisure.

New Line and Warner Bros. made the big announcement early today, and it would appear that Freeman has had Jackson’s seal of approval almost from the start. "Despite the various rumours and speculation surround this role, there has only ever been one Bilbo Baggins for us," the director says as part of the official statement. There are a few times in your career when you come across an actor who you know was born to play a role, but that was the case as soon as I met Martin. He is intelligent, funny, surprising and brave – exactly like Bilbo and I feel incredibly proud to be able to announce that he is our Hobbit."

Source

Excuse me while I go squee in my fist.

morelindo told me just the oher day that Martin Freeman had turned down the role a while ago, and I was crushed when I heard that--not just because I adore Martin Freeman more than is probably healthy (it's still my favourite story told on Love Actually) but because I could just immediately see him as Bilbo. I think he's perfect for the role. PERFECT.

EEEEEE.

The other cast looks good, too. I'm excited to hear Saoirse Ronan may be a candidate, I adore her.

Whenever "The Hobbit" finally arrives in theaters, it will certainly be one of the most anticipated releases in a while. Now it seems that the buzz will only increase, as "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson has reportedly signed on to direct both parts of "The Hobbit," which are loosely slated to hit theaters in 2012 and 2013.

[...]

According to Deadline, the speculation about Peter Jackson directing "The Hobbit" has now turned official, which should get the project back on track. For some time now, the highly buzzed about adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" has been struggling in preproduction without a director.

Source

And from the official (!) press release:

The two films based on "The Hobbit" are now greenlit and will begin principal photography in February 2011, under the direction of Peter Jackson

Press Release

I won't believe they're actually making the movie until it hits the theatres.

From tinaskywalker, reposted as fast as I could.

Shooting of the long-awaited film version of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit is set to begin in New Zealand in July.

Actor Sir Ian McKellen, who reprises his Lord of the Rings role as Gandalf the Grey, revealed casting is taking place in LA, London and New York.

[...]

Jackson - together with his wife Fran Walsh - will produce the films, to be made back-to-back in New Zealand.

Writing on his official website, Sir Ian reports that shooting of the two films is expected to take more than a year, with Del Toro "now living in Wellington, close to the Jacksons' and the studio in Miramar".

McKellen added that the script was still being worked on, saying "the first draft is crammed with old and new friends, again on a quest in Middle-earth".

[...]

According to studio New Line, the first film will be an adaptation of The Hobbit, the novel Tolkien published before his Lord of the Rings cycle.

The second will be an original story focusing on the 60 years between the book and the beginning of the Rings trilogy.


Source.

Not sure what to think of that second "filler" movie but...PLEASE let this be true.

BTW, who else has a bad feeling about next week's episode? I fear someone might end up dead.

This video always makes me homesick for Middle-earth. The editing isn't particularly outstanding but very fitting for the song, and the choice of scenes is pretty much flawless.

Peter Jackson will actually do two movies based on 'The Hobbit'!

Yay! I'd given up hope already!

*giggles*

The music! :-p

Some more RingCon photos. All of these were photoshopped and this is as good as I can get them.


( FIRST OFF SOMETHING ELSE... )

( SEAN ASTIN )

( LORI DUNGEY )

( CRAIG PARKER & MARK FERGUSON )

( MIRANDA OTTO )

OMG back from RingCon. Dead, tired, exhausted but willing to type up as much as possible now while everything's fresh in my memory. Might post more photos tomorrow, today it's only three because my camera's a bitch and makes pictures so dark I have to photoshop everything to make it look halfway decent.

Okay, here we go.

( FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH )

( SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH )

( SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12TH )

( Something On ... Well, My Passion For LOTR )

Yesterday lyxzen and I found something rather - curious at our bookstore downtown. It's a fantasy novel called Elfen Zauber (Elf magic) and while that title didn't necessarily made us go WTF the cover certainly did:

Okay. Did they really believe they could get away with that?

For comparison: The real deal.

Just...*speechless*

I won't go through the hassle of cropping an image and linking it to the bigger one, I'll just post the full images behind the cut - sorry :p

So here's a drawing of Merry & Pippin as requested by slightlytookish and an Ent for little_cinnamon :o)

( Two Hobbits & An Ent )

I'm done with revising for today, yay! I might just spend the rest of the day drawing, or playing the guitar (for the first time in weeks inspiration for a song struck me) or writing my NaNoWriMo novel :O)

Last May I provided myself with a deviantART account but never used it. Today I got so fed up with photobucket not cooperating with my LJ that I decided to upload at least some drawings to deviantART instead.

So, those who requested Varda, Nienna, an amused Gandalf and Beren & Luthien, you can see the drawings here: http://pilgrin.deviantart.com/ :o) I'll try to post the rest of the drawings here, though.

I'm still not too happy with my style, it's too Disney-ish (after I spent months trying to GET to the Disney style, now I don't like it :p ) but I'm getting better on poses, proportions and hands. Yay!

Then I went all crazy and tried to get an Elfwood account - may only take an age or two til the ticket is through ^^

And, finally, a teaser ;o) It's Varda, as requested by miss_nightowl

I went home today. Meaning: my brother and I sat down and watched The Two Towers this evening. I assume there's many who regard The Two Towers as their least favourite film of the triology, but I'm tempted to say it's my favourite (but that's really hard to decide since I love the movies all so much). I think it's because it's the most "human" film of the three. And because I love Rohan. And because that was the film when I realised that Merry & Pippin actually were pretty cool characters after all.

Also The Two Towers features possibly the most heartbreaking scene of all three films. I know there's loads of those, but to me Theoden breaking down at Theodred's grave crying might be the moment that touches me most in the whole triology. To see this once proud and strong king cry so helplessly over his son's death - to me it's the most powerful, most human moment. I'm so glad PJ included it to the film.

To something not completely but still different: I'm done with all "requested" sketches and I've already made proper drawings of Varda and Nienna. I hope I get to do the rest over the weekend as well.

Go with the good will of all good men. Night night.

Because of my recent whining about how I miss LOTR and because liek_omg_ has felt the same for some time, she's come up with this great idea!

( Back 2 Middle-earth Month )

I'm not sure which day to pick yet - I'm thinking about Monday or Friday - or maybe both? :o)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY slightlytookish!!!

May your day be filled with hobbits, and presents, and even more hobbits.

As a little birthday present I come, as you know, bearing fic. A long, long time ago in November you requested something Merry & Pippin in Lothlorien. Tadaaa!!! Lengthwise this thing is somewhere between a drabble and a ficlet, and it's not beta-read but I proofread it a couple of times and I hope I didn't make too many mistakes.

( PROMISES )

So exactly how many of you knew that Christopher Lee did the voice of King Haggard in The Last Unicorn? And how many of you knew he also did the German dubbing for King Haggard?

*headdesk*

Well, at least now I know why his voice always sounded so familiar in LOTR.

From tuckborough.net:

Pippin hair color is mentioned only in the Epilogue that is found in The History of Middle-earth, vol. IX, Sauron Defeated. His namesake, Pippin Gamgee, described Pippin Took as having "hair that's almost golden."


How cute is that?

Pity, really, that in the movie his hair is rather red-ish :O)

Seems like there's so many books I still need to read. What exactly is History Of Middle-earth? I heard it's 12 volume thing, of which only the first three volumes have been translated to German (The Lost Tales I+II & The Unfinished Tales) ... is that true? Does anyone else know more about it? It's killing me there's books out there concerning Middle-earth and hobbits I don't own yet :O)

My brother just found the link. Heck, this video will forever remind me of the Fellowship Festival...

*giggles*

They're Taking The Hobbits To Isengard

Title: Mist & Shadow (2/3)
Author: moi, legoline
Rating: PG-13 for angst.
Warnings: None but angst. And character death. But not really ;o)
Summary: Pelennor fields movie-verse AU thing. When Merry is befallen by the Nazgul poison, he just wants to die. But he is given another chance to take his choice again...
A/N: I wrote this a good while ago, before the ROTK DVD was released. Posted foransothehobbit because she's in need for new Merry centric fanfic. This one is both Merry and Pippin centric but I reckon it's better than nothing, right? :o)
Disclaimer: I only play with them and give them back more or less unharmed...

Part One | Two

(Again the surroundings changed, and the balcony they had been standing on just a moment ago turned into a scantily furnitured room.)

This is a crosspost :o)