"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001) - Deleted opening scene

You know that the first film of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy starts with prologue, where the story of the rings is told, and then we see Gandalf the Grey, who arrives in The Shire, meets Frodo and visits Bilbo.

This deleted scene shows that "The Fellowship of the Ring" might have started with Bilbo Baggins' short story about the Hobbits, their lifestyle and habits. I find this opening very interesting and amusing, because there wasn't much time for those great ancient race to be on the screen. And Hobbiton is a very beautiful place indeed.

I can only imagine how hard it was for Peter Jackson to choose between those two great opening scenes.

More about upcoming "The Hobbit" duology!

"The Hobbit": Video Blog #6 from the Set

Peter Jackson is so good at making me more exited to watch these two films. He shows us something about them, but keeps quiet about even more things.

"The Hobbit" team is still on locations somewhere in New Zealand. I bet the people, who was the part of "The Lord of The Rings", have sentimental flashbacks constantly. Thanks to this video we have more time to discover what kind of people the new actors, who play the dwarves, are. I think they are getting along great.

You can see again how much effort everyone puts in this duology. They are trying to film the most beautiful views of New Zealand, which isn't as easy as it sounds. Many views are filmed especially for 3D from the helicopters, and they will look magnificent on the big screen with Howard Shore's music.

Andy Serkis must have been a huge help for Peter Jackson all this time, because he is a 2nd unit director and always works so hard. But when he called the director 'PJ', I started laughing very hard. What a great friends they have become!

"- How can it be 133 days for three films and 127 days for two films?
- It can be easily explained. We all are 10 years older, so we're going a little slower."

And Ian McKellen told us that we shouldn't be worried about actors, because they have great conditions there (the food looks delicious).

Watch previous video blogs from the set!
More about "The Hobbit" duology!



Click on pictures to enlarge them.

Poll: The Most Anticipated Films of 2012

Finally I'm writing about the most anticipated upcoming films of this year. I included in this huge poll films of different genres, directed by famous and not directors, with young and award-winning actors. Maybe someone finds here something interesting besides his regular tastes. But there are no feature films, which I'm going to include in the next poll.

You can choose 5 films, which you are definitely going to see and waited for them since the previous year (or even longer).

My picks are (they shouldn't affect you choice!):
1. "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
2. "Django Unchained"
3. "Dark Shadows"
4. "The Expendables 2"
5. "Les Misérables"

Christopher Lee 2011 Christmas Message

When I was watchin those two videos, which are kindly recorded by Christopher Lee, I smiled the whole time. He is a wonderful man, very talented actor and a kind person, whom I'd like to meet. In the next year he will celebrate his 90th (!) birthday, and I'm glad he still makes appearances in many films.

"When he asked me to do this [Hugo], I said, well it's about time. Isn't it?" - Christopher Lee about Scorsese

He talks about his upcoming films: "The Wicker Tree", "Hugo" and how much he enjoyed working with Martin Scorsese, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", "The Hobbit: There and Back Again", "Dark Shadows". I'm so exited to see all of the above, especially Peter Jackson's duology, where his Saruman will be the good wizard.

"I emphasize again, I don't play long parts. They must be short parts, but they've got to be parts that mean something, that matter. The people will notice when I'm on the screen and will remember the character after they've seen the film."

In the second video, he talks about an honor being a Fellow of BAFTA. He also discusses his second heavy metal album "Charlemagne: The Omens of Death", which will be out on his birthday.

I wish him to have a Happy New Year, strong health and remain being the Great. I hope he knows how much we love him and his work.

Part 1 of the message



Part 2 of the message

"John Carter" (2012) - First trailer, stills and thoughts

"You are ugly, but you are beautiful. You will fight for us."

There are some rumours that "John Carter" is going to be one of the next year's blockbusters. Let's see why (or why not).

Main character, John Carter, was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and he is almost 100 years old, because appears in different stories since 1912. John comes to Mars and discovers there a whole new civilization. Wait a minute... Don't those aliens look familiar? I bet they do for everyone, who has ever seen George Lucas' "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace", because they are very much like the inhabitants of Tatooine, where Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader) was raised.

Pixar's guy Andrew Stanton is a director of this film. He is famous for some great feature films, like "Finding Nemo", "Toy Story" series, "Monsters, Inc." and "WALL-E". But I'm not sure that it's a great idea for him to make an action story of such a kind.

Taylor Kitsch plays the main part and he looks like Jake Gyllenhaal in "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time". And isn't his costume borrowed from Jason Momoa, who starred in "Conan the Barbarian"?

Tons of special effects are used to create huge armies of funny and dangerous looking creatures. Landscapes sometimes look beautiful here, but after I saw "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" trailer, it's hard to impress me. And there will be 3D. I start liking this film less and less.

The only thing I surely like is the song from the trailer below. It's "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin.

First trailer




Future hero?

Meet the aliens

No story without a beautiful girl

Oh, Mark Strong is also here

The City and that beautiful view of Mars

Did they borrow something from "Cowboys & Aliens"?

Are you exited about "John Carter" or not interested in it?

"The Hobbit": Fifth Video Blog from the Set

"The main reason for going on location for the project is to capture the scenic beauty of New Zealand."

Peter Jackson presents another video from the set of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey". As he promised in the previous one, he takes us on locations, where they are filming some interesting scenes. You can see the crew traveled a lot (and probably will travel more). I'm again impressed how many people are working on this story - they say there are over a five hundred workers and dozens of trucks were used to take all stuff out of the studio. Looks like everything has been packed (WC cabins; coffee makers; costumes; cameras; actors; fake hair for beards, feet and wigs; giant plants and trees; cows, pigs, ducks etc).

Elijah Wood said such touching words about coming back after 11 years. It must be a great feeling to film there again.

Even Prime Minister of New Zealand came to visit "The Hobbit" team. They say Hobbiton was built for real this time and it will be left untouched for those, who would like to visit this place. I'm first in that row. 

Now this video is my favourite among others, because I'd gave many things to have a chance to work on such a wonderful project and to film on those locations. New Zealand is very picturesque. And I'd like to retire in Hobbiton too, especially if Peter Jackson will settle there. What a neighbour he could be!

Next video from the set will be released early in the next year.

Watch previous videos from the set of upcoming duology "The Hobbit":
1st video,
2nd video,
3rd video,
4th video.

More about "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" (2012)! (all pictures, stories, news, set videos, Peter Jackson's statements etc.)



And a few interesting pictures from the set (click on the image to enlarge it):

Peter The Great

Peter The Funny 

Floating dwarves

If some unreleased pictures will leak, guess whose fault it will be...

Andy Serkis is busy gathering flowers

Map of New Zealand magically turns into a map of the Middle-Earth 

Occupying the space of a football field

Sentimental Elijah Wood

Peaceful Hobbiton

Next movie star

Peter and his team are wishing us a "MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" - First trailer, poster and many stills

"Bilbo Baggins, I'm looking for someone to share an adventure."

I can't tell you how exited I am that the first trailer has arrived! New and old characters of the Middle-earth promise us something huge, dangerous and breathtaking. Shire looks peaceful, but we know that all adventures begin there. I can go on, but you better watch it with your own eyes.

Directed by Peter Jackson.

See the list of all characters and actors below the trailer.

Release date - December 14, 2012.

Poster (click to enlarge) - iTunes movie trailers








Trailer #1



Let me introduce all main characters (click on the picture to enlarge it):

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman)

Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen)

Fili (Dean O'Gorman)

Kili (Aidan Turner)

Oin (John Callen)

Gloin (Peter Hambleton)

Dwalin (Graham McTavish)

Balin (Ken Stott)

Bifur (William Kircher)

Bofur (James Nesbitt)

Bombur (Stephen Hunter)

Dori (Mark Hadlow)

Nori (Jed Brophy)

Ori (Adam Brown)

Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage)

Galadriel (Cate Blanchett)

Gollum (Andy Serkis) (try to find him)