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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: hobbit movie, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 4 of 4
1. And Another Book For The Shelves!

Today I took my nephew Max and his cousin Dezzy to the movies. After lunch and before the movie, we browsed in the local bookshop, the newly-opened Avenue Bookshop in Elsternwick, which has taken over from the very old Sunflower Bookshop.

Dezzy was looking unsuccessfully for a book on the subject of "deception", having just read and enjoyed one of her father's self-help books on the subject. Max, who wants to be a film-maker and animator, was in the film section as always, curled up with a book on 100 ideas that shaped film. Of course, I always support him in his dreams - he has already made some Lego animations and placed them on YouTube - so I bought him the book he was reading and then couldn't resist getting one for myself - this one!



Brian Sibley has been doing these books on Tolkien-based movies for some time and co-wrote the script for the BBC radio play - which I now have on CD. I do love making-of books. The best LOTR movie book I have read, so far, is the Andy Serkis one, which was not only one of those "how I got the part in this movie" books but had a lot of chapters written by people who did all the technical stuff. It was so very good that I bought a copy for my Senior Campus library, where we have Media Studies and Multimedia. Not that Andy Serkis didn't tell some entertaining anecdotes, such as his little daughter seeing him in his make-up for the deteriorating Smeagol. He'd been worried that she would be scared, but she only said, "Silly Daddy!" But it was a very good book about film-making in general.

This one does have actor interviews, but also interviews with the technical folk - make-up, costuming, hairdressers( and when you have to look after ninety-one lots of wigs and beards just for the Dwarves, that's no small job!), prosthetics artists - much harder than in the last lot of movies, because they now use a kind of silicon instead of latex, much better visually, but has to be replaced each day - even the breakdown artist,  a lady whose job it is to make the costumes lived-in!

I have only read some bits while waiting for the bus and on the tram, but I'm very much looking forward to curling up with this in bed tonight.

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2. Midnight in Austenland

Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale.  Bloomsbury, 2012

I'm afraid I am a sure-sell when all things Jane Austen. Hale's first book Austenlandwhich I reviewed (here) in 2007 was entertaining Jane Austen fanfiction.  I savored the concept of a place like Disneyland for Austen lovers, hence the name Austenland.

The story was picked up by Twilight's Stephanie Meyer who is producing Austenland -- the movie which is in post-production according to IMDB.   If you wander back to July 2011 on author Shannon Hale's blog, squeetusblog, you will find her posting a bit about being on the movie set.

In this new book, Hale keeps the setting and some of the background characters including Mrs Wattlesbrook who manages the place, Colonel Andrews, who interacts with the visitors like a Disney Character at the parks, and Miss Charming, a perpetual guest at Pembrook. 

Charlotte Kinder is a divorced mother of two.  She is successful in business but feels alone and like a failure because of her divorce. When the opportunity to take a vacation presents itself, the travel agent suggests Austenland and Charlotte, who has only recently read Jane Austen's works, books the trip. 

Hale tells the story in a sort of pendulum swing fashion between the past and present.  The reader learns more about Charlotte's past as she tries to understand herself in an ongoing dialog with her Inner Thoughts. In the first story, Hale played off Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  Here she puts a spin on Northanger Abbey.  Has there been a murder at Pembrook Park or is Charlotte, like the NA character Catherine Morland, seeing things that are not there? 
This was a fun read for spring break.

As New Zealand discovered there is gold in fan loyalty.  This time around Peter Jackson et al are rebuilding Hobbiton for the filming of The Hobbit so it will be a permanent part of the New Zealand tourist trade for year to come. (See Hobbiton Movie Set Tours)  I wonder if a similar idea might be pursued to create a real Austenland type hotel for Austen fans.

3. More Hobbit movie excitement

I've finished my evening with a wander on to the Hobbit movie blog site - The Hobbit Blog - and can heartily recommend it. It's full of good stuff such as the video blogs of the production. Apparently Andy Serkis is now a second unit director as well as Gollum... and the bits with him doing Gollum shown in the blogs were ... preciousss... :-)

There were scenes in Bag End, with the Dwarves around the table having their unexpected party, and Rivendell, with Hugo Weaving as Elrond again. Not sure what Galadriel is doing there, even if she is Elrond's mother-in-law, since she wasn't in the book, but what-the-heck, Cate Blanchett is just gorgeous in the role, and that wonderful white gown trailing on the floor - "Just don't ask me to walk in it," she quips.

John Rhys-Davies popped in and assured them that they'd now go all over the world with women chasing them. "As long as you're in costume," adds Peter Jackson.

I really like that every single Dwarf is different and has his own personality and it shows. I found this picture of the Dwarves together - isn't it delicious? Just click into it to get it bigger. I may use it for a computer desktop.



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4. Hobbit movie excitement

Anyone excited about the Hobbit movie? I am! They are gradually releasing pictures of the cast in costume and make-up and I have to say that Thorin Oakenshield is going to get more drooling female fans than Bard the bowman, that proto-Aragorn! I would have imagined Richard Armitage as Bard rather than Thorin, but I guess we have to trust Peter Jackson. Some of the cast of LOTR are going to be there - well, Gandalf, obviously, so yes, Ian McKellan, and Elrond. I would have thought they could give Orlando Bloom the role of Thranduil, Legolas's dad, but it seems they're slipping in Legolas himself. Of course, Andy Serkis doing Gollum again. I think Martin Freeman will be a good Bilbo. Having seen him as Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, it suddenly occurred to me that there were some similarities between Bilbo and Arthur - both are dragged kicking and screaming from their comfort zone - but Bilbo matures and develops leadership qualities, where Arthur doesn't - although the movie Arthur did, to some extent. So yes, I can see him in the role (and have seen photos of him as Bilbo).

I discovered The Hobbit as an adult. It charmed and delighted me even after reading Lord of The Rings. It was funny and sad, exciting and over-the-top. Anyone who doesn't sniffle just a bit at that last scene between Thorin and Bilbo has no heart, IMO.

And if anyone can make a movie in the spirit of the novel, it's Peter Jackson.

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