Sci-Fi Storm

It’s almost time for the last installment of The Hobbit, and with it an appropriate message goodbye to Middle-earth, sung by Billy Boyd who played Pippin in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy,to be played at the conclusion of The Battle of the Five Armies. Tears will be shed…

Opens December 17th…

The good folks at Air New Zealand love to have fun…even when it comes to safety. And their latest safety video features the movies that were filmed in New Zealand – in this case, The Hobbit, featuring The Shire, dwarves, elves, a wizard or two, and special appearances from several of the film series’ stars…check it out below!
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The extended edition of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is available for pre-order now…it is available in [sfs=1440]Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/Digital[/sfs] and [sfs=1438]Blu-ray/Digital[/sfs] versions – no U.S. DVD release has been announced yet. Amazon also has an exclusive gift pack featuring a special Weta figurine depicting the river barrel run…that is available in both the [sfs=1439]Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/Digital[/sfs] and [sfs=1441]Blu-ray/Digital[/sfs] editions as well!

The extended edition adds 25 minutes of additional footage to the original feature, plus another 9 hours of bonus features!

Check out the extended edition trailer below, plus as an added extra, watch how they created the river scene…

In a post on Facebook, Peter Jackson announced that they will re-title the third film of The Hobbit from There And Back Again to The Battle of the Five Armies. The former title was a reference to the name of the collection of Bilbo’s memoirs as collected in the Red Book of Westmarch, the “source” of the stories that J.R.R. Tolkien recounts in his Middle-earth books (the first movie’s title, An Unexpected Journey, is a similar reference.) When it was just two movies as originally planned, the title made more sense, but now with how the story is split, it was appears to make more sense to take on a name referring to a latter section of the book.

Here is the full post.

The Oscar nominations are out, and there were some sure things (like Gravity) and surprising snubs (Saving Mr. Banks only getting Original Score and Tom Hanks completely shut out). And of course, other than Gravity (which had Oscar star power to start), it is perhaps not surprising to not see genre movies get much appreciation – even with the expanded 10 film Best Picture slate, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug missed the cut.

Here is a roundup of the nominations of genre-related films and their nominations (forgive me if I miss some):

The Croods
Best animated feature film

Despicable Me 2
Best animated feature film
Original song – “Happy”

Frozen
Best animated feature film
Original song – “Let It Go”

Gravity
Sandra Bullock – Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cinematography
Directing
Film editing
Original score
Best picture
Production design
Sound editing
Sound mixing
Visual effects

Her
Original score
Original song – “The Moon Song”
Best picture
Production design
Original screenplay

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
Sound editing
Sound mixing
Visual effects

Iron Man 3
Visual effects

The Lone Ranger
Makeup and hairstyling
Visual effects

Star Trek Into Darkness
Visual effects

Here be dragons…
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is out on [sfs=1373]Blu-ray 3D[/sfs], [sfs=1374]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1375]DVD[/sfs] this Tuesday, November 5th…I’ve reviewed the theatrical edition already, so what’s so cool about this version? In a word: extras. In a few more words – over nine hours of additional material, not including the feature-length commentary by Peter Jackson and Phillipa Boyens.

First, a quick synopsis:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first in Peter Jackson’s highly anticipated trilogy adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome Dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the Wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of 13 Dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild, through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins, Orcs and deadly Wargs, as well as a mysterious and sinister figure known only as the Necromancer.
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A little more than a month away from the release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, on November 5th Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will release the Extended Edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which will feature 13 minutes of extra film footage that extends individual scenes, and nine hours of additional special features! It is available now for pre-order in a [sfs=1373]Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/Ultraviolet 5-disc package[/sfs], [sfs=1374]Blu-ray/DVD/Ultraviolet 3-disc package[/sfs], and a [sfs=1375]DVD 5-disc package[/sfs]. A digital version is already available on iTunes and includes the same extra features (iTunes extras may not be available in all countries.)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first in Peter Jackson’s highly anticipated trilogy adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome Dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the Wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of 13 Dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild, through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins, Orcs and deadly Wargs, as well as a mysterious and sinister figure known only as the Necromancer.
(continue reading…)