The Hobbit

If Sauron does appear on screen I hope they forget about the whole 'cannot take physical form' thing that they made up for the trilogy films and we actually see a proper person. No more eye beams, please!

I hope they don't do that. The Eye was kind of awful, yes, but Sauron was even less embodied in The Hobbit than in LOTR.

Honestly, I don't really get the hate for the lidless eye wreeeathed in flaaaaaame. I thought it was really cool and a neat visual.

That said, onscreen Sauron sounds awesome.

Yeah, I never got the hate either. I mean, Sauron had a physical form in the books, but he apparently never left the room right underneath the Eye, which did seem to exist in the book. I think they did it just because having Sauron appear as the Eye was much more interesting than a shadowy character that never seems to do anything at all.

This movie sounds like it's going to be awesome though!

I don't think they ever actually said that. They did actually plan for him to take physical presence at one point but ditched that. I personally like the Eye. The Eye's all over the books.

I always thought Sauron was a Wraith when the White council drove him out of Mirkwood that's not exactly impossible to portray

At no point do any of the novels actually describe Sauron's physical appearance — well, in the Third Age, anyway. It's a problem when you have to translate that into a visual medium.

edited 20th Jun '11 6:22:09 AM by Fighteer

Saruman says it during his and Gandalf's talk in Orthanc in Fellowship.

Even outside the books, Tolkien wasn't exactly pouring out details about what Sauron looked like in the 3rd Age. I think 'like a man, but terrible' was as close as he got in Letters (unfortunately I don't have my copy at uni and can't check the wording). However, if the film-makers are going to portray Sauron in the film, it gives them a lot of lee-way (and I think they probably will, especially if the Dol Guldur assault is shown).

My wish is that they include the Azog/Bolg Moria backstory if they're expanding outwards, and if possible, give the Quest of Erebor material some treatment. Though since that is in Unfinished Tales, I'm not sure they would be allowed to film that.

edited 20th Jun '11 11:38:06 AM by Fiwen9430

Production stills

Link's not working. I tried doing another link, and that didn't work either. Search for The Hobbit on the site and you'll see it.

Martin Freeman looks so utterly adorable as Bilbo! I want to hug him!

edited 23rd Jun '11 10:41:33 AM by Accela

I hope the dwarves' costumes are more colorful than they look there.

i'd like to echo the sentiment that Martin looks very huggable as bilbo

They're starting to release publicity stills of the dwarves now. So far, we have:

Dori, Ori, Nori Oin and Gloin

They look very differentiated from each other, which is good if the viewer is supposed to keep thirteen different dwarves straight. I love the different beard styles.

Here's Fili and Kili. Man, they're pretty.

Without the forced perspective and other camera tricks, they don't really look all that, well, short. Ah, well, I'm sure the movie will handle that issue.

I like that Gloin is the only one of the bunch who looks like Gimli at first glance.

Which would be appropriate, as Gimli is his son.

Why didn't they just cast John Rhy-Davies as Gloin again? Also I hope Peter Jackson adds in a lot of "Bless My Soul" lines for Bilbo,he homaged Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings so he should homage the Rankin-Bass cartoon

Of course I'd be content if he at one angled filmed The Battle of Five Armies from above,or got someone who sounded like Richard Boone to voice Smaug.

Rhys-Davies refused to play a Dwarf again because he suffered a terrible allergic reaction to the latex prosthetics during the filming of LOTR. He spent most of the production in some degree of agony.

Bombur, Bofur, Bifur.

(Sees pictures of Fili and Kili)

Sexy dwarves?

...sexy...dwarves?

I was not expecting that. Awesome.

I love them all, it's great they've managed to effectively differentiate between them and give them looks befitting their characters(minor though some of them are), I mean look at Gloin and Bombur they're exactly as they should be and i particularly like Bifur

Aidan Turner looks like he should be in a hair care commercial but still

now all we need is to see Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield

edited 14th Jul '11 12:00:32 AM by faradayangel

Balin and Dwalin

Bald Of Awesome right there. I'm guessing Thorin is the grand final reveal.

edited 15th Jul '11 4:06:10 AM by edvedd

Yay, Balin! He was always one of the nicest dwarves.

And I'm guessing that Bilbo is the final reveal.

Can't go around releasing pics of 13 characters. It's bad luck.