Thank you for joining us here at Portsmouth Studios.
I'm Jed Brophy, I play Nori in the Hobbit films.
This morning, you get to see behind the scenes...
...and how we make these movies and where we make them.
And later on, you get to ask Peter Jackson some questions live.
And speaking of which, here's Peter Jackson himself.
- Good morning, Peter. - Jed, how are you?
- What are we gonna look at today? - Well, we're gonna end up in the cutting room.
Most of this will take place in the cutting room...
...but before we get there, I wanted to give everyone a tour around our building.
For those of you that have watched the blogs...
...Stone Street Studios, where the filming is done, is about a hundred yards down the road.
And so, this is kind of our postproduction place.
It's where we find ourselves for months and months after the film is finished.
And this is the motion capture stage-- Performance capture stage.
And Christian is in the middle of doing a bit of motion capture...
...for the second Hobbit movie.
- Okay, cut there. Yeah, we're doing... - Cool.
...we're doing the bit where Azog, um, and the Ores--
Hey, spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. We don't--
Let's just stick to the-- Look, this is Azog.
You see Azog there, who's one of our chief Ores.
He's actually friendly when he's in a motion capture suit.
More friendly than he is in the movie.
And an Ore and then...
...these guys are doing the performance capture...
...and Christian is directing them.
This is the sort of thing we have to do for months and months...
...to get everything ready for these films to come out in December.
So if you guys wanna run it...
...we'll just have a look at the screen over here and you can see...
- Okay. Cool. - Cut there.
Yeah, we'll go again.
- Just keep on working on it. - Yeah.
I'm sure it can be improved but it's gonna look good.
Just a little more anger maybe. A little more anger.
That's really good, Jed. Really good. Thank you.
- I'm just gonna be here-- - Let's keep on going.
We're just gonna take you on a little tour through the inner sanctum, as it were.
I always like to have movie posters on the walls...
...of films that I enjoyed or particularly loved when I was young...
...and this is a great movie.
- Have you seen it? - Yeah, someone should remake it.
Remake it. That would be a good idea, Jed, and you could be in it.
- Yeah, it's one of my favorite movies. - Good. Good. All right. Here we are.
All right.
So we're moving up into the Editorial Department.
We get a good little view out the window of the motion capture stage...
...and just peer down and make sure they're all working very hard down there.
We have various editing rooms.
Ali's in there working hard.
- Wow, what have we got here? - Well, this is...
...a poster collection of six-sheets, which is a size of poster...
...they don't make any more in three-sheets...
...and I've spent a few years trying to collect...
...every James Bond six-sheet and three-sheet.
So this is like the James Bond walk of fame.
- Wow. Which is your favorite? - That's good.
Well, that was the first Bond movie I saw, Live and Let Die.
But, you know, the posters in the old days were just fantastic.
They used to actually paint movie posters...
...which never happens anymore, unfortunately.
- That's a great poster, isn't it? - Yeah, it is.
- You Only Live Twice. - The detail in it is amazing.
You just walk down this corridor and it makes you feel good.
- Yeah, that's-- - Yeah.
And you've got room for the ones coming up.
We've got room for more of them. Yep.
Now we're heading into the Previs Department.
That stands for previsualization.
Which is like storyboards, except we don't do storyboards anymore.
We do these animated sort of sequences...
...which we work on for quite a few months...
...before we then give them to Weta Digital to do the final shots.
And we have quite a lot of people working in that Previs Department, big team.
Working on designs for Smaug.
- Hey. Hey, again. - Hey.
Yeah. See...
You didn't really think we were gonna show you Smaug, did you?
Come on. Let's keep going.
So, what do we got?
Some motion studies, yeah. Some ideas. What do you think?
Well, it looks a little like a T. rex with wings.
- So we're close? - Well, not close, no.
I don't, I don't think you're close. I think the wings should be bigger.
If a T. rex is ever gonna take off, it would need much bigger wings than that.
- Okay. - Yeah.
All right.
- Ha-ha. They've got a wee way to go. - Shall we carry on?
So these are some of the artwork from the previs?
When you're doing previs, you've got to build a model of the set...
...so you can, you know, accurately, um, portray the scenes.
This is a set that we built for, um--
It's the Rivendell Library that we never used in the movies.
At the end of the day, it was a sequence that we never shot.
We cut it out of the script before it got shot.
But we did do some early previs on it.
So we are officially entering the Editing Department now.
And the first room is the room with all our brave edit team.
The editing of this movie wouldn't happen if it wasn't for all these people...
...at the height of their professional powers.
They call this room the bunker, don't they?
- The bunker. - The bunker.
- How's it going, guys? All right? - Yeah, thank you.
- They could see-- - Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Let's don't put--
- Dear, oh dear. - The elves are always watching. Always.
Let's head down the corridor and then we'll make ourselves comfortable.
All right.
That's my favorite. Goldfinger.
Everything he touches turns into excitement.
- It's like my career. - Heh.
All right, through here, Jed.
- Here we are. This is the editing room. - Wow.
Yup. It's always a bit strange because, you know, when we're shooting a movie...
...we're dealing with 200 or 300 people on set.
And while there's a lot of other people working on the film in post-production...
...at Weta Digital, and the sound...
...once I'm done with shooting the film, suddenly it's just me and Jabez.
This is Jabez Olssen.
- How's it going? Good to see you. - I'm good.
Um, it's just me and Jabez in this room alone.
So it's a bit of a culture shock, you know, to suddenly...
- Big TV? - Big TV. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
How big is that?
- Um, I think that's about 103 inches. - Wow.
Yeah, it's good. And there is a reason why the TV is so big.
It's not just a kind of an indulgence, because it's--
In the old days we used to edit movies on a little screen...
...like a Steenbeck on a flatbed.
And it was strange because you spent months editing the movie on a screen this size...
...and then when you finally projected it in a cinema...
...which you'd do once you'd done your out...
...you always had to go back and change the cut...
...because the difference-- It's just the rhythms and the pacing...
...between the small screen and the big screen was strange. It was unexpected.
And so having as big a screen as possible...
...like literally the biggest screen we could find to cut on...
...is actually giving us the best sense we can, of what it's gonna be like in a cinema.
Right. So this is more like the end result.
Yeah, it's so much better than cutting on a monitor-sized screen.
So it's good and I've got my poster.
This was on my bedroom wall when I was a kid.
- Really? This actual poster? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Have you got a copy of the movie? - I do, yeah.
It's okay but it wasn't really about the movie.
The dinosaurs were cool and Raquel Welch was cool.
- Ha-ha-ha. - And when you're a teenage boy...
...that's a very good poster to have on the wall.
- Indeed. - Yes.
So anyway, so we're gonna just...
...before we get started, we've got questions that we're looking forward to answering...
...and a few bits and pieces, a few surprise guests coming on.
Hello, everyone.
This is Luke Evans. I played Bard the Bowman. Um...
I unfortunately won't be able to be at the live event. Um...
I'm gutted I can't be there.
It seems like it's gonna be a very fun day.
And Pete's gonna give you lots of little tidbits about the second movie. Uh...
But I thought I'd just like to join in and say hello...
...and say how excited I am about the second movie...
...and seeing what Pete's actually done so far...
...and what he's done with my character, with Bard.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Bard the Bowman is shaping up for the second film.
It's been quite a while since I've played him now.
Last August was the last time.
So I'm looking forward to coming back in June...
...when I get to put on the costume and the hair and the character...
...and jump back into Middle-earth...
...which I've missed quite a lot.
So have a great day...
...and just say hi to Pete.
I look forward to seeing you again soon, my friend.
And hello to all the fans.
The One Ringers, The Hobbiteers and whatever else you wanna call yourself.
You're all fabulous. Love your work. Bye.
- Bye, Luke. - Heh, heh.
- Great. - Yeah.
So you gonna, you gonna tell him he's not in the movie anymore?
He's absolutely in the movie, Jed. We couldn't lose Luke. He's fantastic.
- He's one of the cool things in the second film. - Yeah, he is.
Mind you, there might be the odd Dwarf who's expendable.
- Depending on behavior or something. - There are a lot of them.
- Yeah.
Well, I actually wanted to remind the viewers right now...
...that we do have a hash tag on the screen now.
It's #askPeterlive...
...and be sure to send any questions to Peter using the hash tag...
...and we will be answering those live later on the show.
If I was gonna send a question in...
...can I just say, if I was gonna send a question in over Twitter...
...I'd be saying-- It would be a question for Jed.
And I'd be saying, "Why the silly hairstyle?"
Because I mean, at least in the movie, we get to cover it with a wig.
- That's right. I know. - I mean...
This is just-- This is all done by Weta, this whole look.
Okay, great. So we're-- Oh, we got some video questions...
...I think is what we're gonna be looking at.
Some of you very kindly sent in some questions over YouTube...
...and we've selected a few and we've pre-recorded our answers...
...because we wanted to edit-in some clips. It was the easiest way for us to do that.
So you get to see some little glimpses of The Desolation of Smaug.
So let's have a look at your questions. Thank you.
So I have your questions here on the iPad.
And we'll...
...have a look at them.
Hey, Peter, Chris here. Hope all is well.
Urn, I've heard it often said by you and the writers that the most difficult chapter...
...in the Lord of the Rings trilogy to craft, as a story, was The Two Towers.
And that totally makes sense. Being the middle chapter...
...it has no definitive beginning...
...and it certainly doesn't have a conclusive ending.
And I was just curious if last year...
...when you guys went from two films for The Hobbit, to three films...
...if there was at least one or two moments of kicking yourself and going:
"We just kind of resurrected a bunch of old problems...
...giving ourselves, again, that middle chapter."
So I guess my question to you is...
...how has the process now been, going from two to three...
...and finding the emotional arc for this middle chapter...
...The Desolation of Smaug? Thanks.
Yeah, well, you're right. It is complicated to do a middle film. Um...
But the advantage is that we have multiple storylines.
The first of The Hobbit movies...
...is a fairly linear film, you know.
Gandalf leads the Dwarves across Middle-earth at the beginning of this adventure.
The great thing about the second movie...
...as it was with The Two Towers, actually, is that the story...
...starts splitting into multiple storylines...
...and we can follow different characters...
...as the story intensifies and the stakes go up.
It has been a long time since Thorin Oakenshield traveled so far east.
For what purpose?
When Tolkien wrote The Hobbit in 1937...
...he created the character of Thranduil, who in our movie is played by Lee Pace.
And some 10 or 15 years later, as he was writing The Lord of the Rings...
...he wanted an Elvish character to be part of the fellowship and so he created Legolas.
When we visit the Woodland Realm in The Hobbit...
...it just seemed like a great opportunity for us to actually have Legolas there.
He is Thranduil's son and it just seemed natural.
And it also gives us an ability to expand the storyline of the Wood-elves...
...which is something that we were interested in doing.
We also go into the world of men, as well, to Lake-town...
...meeting the Master, played by Stephen Fry.
No, he's here. He's here.
- Who? - The Master.
Welcome. Welcome.
Alfrid, his manservant.
The Master of Lake-town is a rather political figure.
In terms of the storyline, he does present an obstacle to the Dwarves.
I have seen Dwarves, sire.
Dwarves?
I gave no permission to Dwarves to enter the city.
So he's a valuable character to have...
...and Stephen Fry just seemed like a natural to us.
- I'm suave, debonair... - Ha-ha-ha.
...and I almost look unnaturally handsome.
Somebody has to take over the mantle from Orlando Bloom...
...as the most desirable figure to be in a Tolkien adaptation.
There is a lot of ironic humor...
...a satirical kind of edge to the Master...
...in the way that he is in the book...
...that Tolkien wrote, plus we certainly used that tone in the film.
Rather than just talk about the Master, why don't we actually hear from the man himself?
Stephen.
Hello. This is Stephen Fry here.
I play the Master of Lake-town in The Hobbit ll...
...The Desolation of Smaug.
I can't tell you what a sorrow it is for me not to be in New Zealand at the moment.
In fact, as we speak...
...England is decimating the New Zealand cricket side but that's irrelevant.
That's not the reason I would want to be in New Zealand, although it is good enough.
I'd want to be in New Zealand because it is a lovely place to be.
But mostly, because I just loved working on The Hobbit.
Um, my part is in The Hobbit ll and possibly in The Hobbit Ill.
I don't know. Part of the glory--
Well, I'm sure that Stephen won't mind if we just answer another question very quickly.
Here they are.
Hello, Peter. We are readers from Beijing, China.
We want to ask you some questions.
I really like the role of Legolas...
...and it's player, Orlando Bloom.
What's the reason you choose him to play this role...
...and does he have some similarities with this role?
Orlando doesn't really have similarities to Legolas.
He's much more relaxed and laid back and he's a really funny guy.
Imagine if I just draw the sword and suddenly stabbed you in the back.
That's another movie altogether. Ha-ha.
Whereas Legolas tends to be a little, um, uptight, shall we say.
- There was more the Orc could tell us. - There was nothing more he could tell me.
So, no. I mean...
...Orlando brings Legolas to life brilliantly as an actor...
...but the character is very different to Orlando in person.
In fact, why don't we say hi to Orlando?
To all my dear friends...
...and quite honestly, what feels like extended family at this point, down in New Zealand...
...Peter, all the fans who are down there, I heard there's a live event.
I'm really sorry I can't be there.
Nobody understands these worlds or this character quite like Peter...
...so I have a question for Peter.
Out of your crazy, wild, creative imagination...
...what moment are you most looking forward to seeing appear on the screen?
You don't have to say Legolas. We all know it's gonna be.
Anything you're in, Orlando, is obviously brilliant.
In fact, so good, we don't even need to talk about it here.
People can just see for themselves in December...
...but in terms of other scenes that other people are in...
...I would say the confrontation between Smaug and Bilbo.
Yes, Smaug has just woken up, basically, and he knows someones there.
So I'm about to put the ring on, the ring of invisibility...
...and try and escape from him.
Well, he's following you down. So it's like backing away.
It is probably the highlight of this particular movie, for me.
It's such an iconic Tolkien scene.
Dwarves will take some catching...
...and so do burglars.
We'll just pop back to London to see if Stephen has anything more to add.
Eye levels of orange spots and all that.
More or less...
...my filming is traditional acting in real sets of astonishing quality.
I'm a-- Let's, shall we say-- a greedy character. A corrupt character.
It's perhaps the only moment in The Hobbit where Tolkien gets in a bit of politics...
...a bit of a satire on, you know, local government.
I can't tell you what kind of end I come to because I don't actually know.
That's the mystery. I'm going back to help complete the film.
And we all hope you get as much pleasure out of it...
...as we have derived from making it.
Hello, Peter. My name is Marina.
I want to ask will be there new characters, and who they are?
The Hobbit is a great movie and I love it.
Thanks for watching me and I hope you will answer my questions.
Yeah, well, I mean, The Hobbit has a lot of new characters, um...
...that appear in the second movie, The Desolation of Smaug.
Thranduil, who we saw very briefly in the prologue of Unexpected Journey.
Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman.
To all those brilliant fans, and I know there's millions of you, um...
...I'm Bard the Bowman, I'm part of the family now.
And I'm very glad to be here.
Luke is an absolutely terrific actor.
And he has created a character with a sense of enigma about him.
He has a kind of almost a Robin Hoodish mystery, slightly shady background.
Now that would get you killed.
We're having a lot of fun. We're having a lot of fun with that character...
...not really knowing whether he is a good guy or a bad guy.
- Hey. - Sorry.
But in terms of a new character...
...if you literally wanna say a new character, in other words...
...a character that doesn't even appear in Tolkien's book...
...we have created an Elvish character...
...a female character called Tauriel.
And Tauriel is like a bodyguard of Thranduil's.
She's part of the Elven-- The Woodland Guard, we call them.
And they're not the high Elves, they're a more lowly form of elf.
And she certainly hasn't got the status of say, Legolas, who's the king's son.
And Evangeline Lilly plays Tauriel.
And we're quite excited about the storyline that we have created for Tauriel.
As you can see, she's not an elf guard to be messed with.
You like killing things, Orc?
You like death?
- Then let me give it to you! - Tauriel.
We have one last question, so let's have a look at that.
Hi, Mr. Jackson. I'm Francisco.
- I'm lco. - And I'm Rio.
And we're your biggest LOTR fans from Brazil.
Urn, we recently moved to Brazil, and LOTR has been in our family for many years.
My older brother and sister were huge LOTR fans.
They went to the premieres in your first movies of The Lord Of The Rings...
...The Fellowship Of The Ring and The Return Of The King.
Today we have a question for you, and our question is...
...what is your favorite Lord Of The Rings or Hobbit weapon?
Ours, you can see here, is Gloin and Gimli's battle ax...
...or throwing ax, all of his axes.
And, yeah, well, it was an honor speaking with you.
I hope you can answer our question. Bye!
- Bye! - Bye!
Sure. I'd love to answer your question.
Just happen to have my favorite Lord Of The Rings weapon here.
There it is. It's Theoden's sword...
...from Two Towers and Return Of The King. Theoden, played by Bernard Hill.
And I just love the design of it. I love the fact that it's got...
...sort of, horses. They match the culture of Rohan.
It's based on a, almost like a Viking sword...
...or Anglo-Saxon, early Anglo-Saxon sword...
...which is how the world of Rohan was really designed in the movies.
And it's very, very heavy.
I mean, this is a real sword.
It's steel and brass...
...and it feels good.
It's actually very heavy. You'd be surprised at how heavy it is.
Obviously, when we're doing fight scenes...
...we usually create a more lightweight version of the sword for the actors to use.
You wouldn't want anybody, a stuntman or anybody to get hurt by this thing.
It is like a real sword, a real weapon made of steel.
But look, thank you very much for submitting those questions. It was a lot of fun.
And, um, should we just pop back to London and see how Stephen's going?
--Cinema-goers who are devoted to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy...
...and to the first of the Hobbits, so we have a lot to, you know, a lot to live up to.
And I hope we do, and I hope we give you pleasure and some comedy...
...as well as the sheer delight of the human spirit...
...that shines out of these stories.
It is one of the great paradoxes of fantasy...
...that it's through fantasy that humanity shines out...
...not through realism.
Anyway, I've probably talked far, far too much.
I just want to send all my love, and I'm sorry I can't be at Peter's side...
...doing this very special DVD extra. Much love.
Sorry about that, Stephen. I love you, but honestly...
...you can't expect to make those comments about the New Zealand cricket team...
...and get away unscathed. Right.
Well, we have our first Twitter question onscreen right now.
And it is, "Mr. Jackson, during the film process...
...how difficult is it to stay on track of plans?"
It can be very difficult. I mean, um...
Staying on schedule and obviously, on budget, is incredibly important.
There's nothing more stressful than going over budget on a movie.
But sometimes you don't have any control in it, particularly with the weather.
You know, if we are filming outside, and especially if you're in a remote location...
...and it happens to be pouring with rain, there's not a lot we can do about it.
We didn't have a lot of that on this film, did we? Once or twice.
We had that one, two days at the end of location that we had to go back and do.
- Yeah. - We were flooded out at Nelson.
Yeah, we had to leave Nelson...
...a location that appears in The Desolation Of Smaug...
...where the Dwarves are going down the river in barrels.
We had the police show up on set...
...telling us that there was a flood warning, that there was a torrential storm about to hit us.
And so we literally had to get everything out of there...
...about two days ahead of when we planned to.
So those things are stressful...
...but, you know, what I do in the morning is I show up...
...I look at the script, what we have to film that day...
...and I rehearse with the cast. It's the first thing we do on a day of shooting.
And then you literally plan out how many shots you can do that day.
It depends on how difficult the shots are and how difficult the scene is.
It can vary, the number of camera angles you can get in a particular day.
Some days it's as little as six or seven...
...other days it can be 12 or 14.
And so you kind of know, and you sit there and you plan it...
...and you just plot your way through the day to try to get to the end of it.
But, yeah, it is one of the most stressful things about filmmaking.
We actually have another video question for Peter.
So shall we have a look and see who it is?
Peter Jackson, Stephen Colbert. I got a question for you...
...about the Elves of Mirkwood...
...or as it used to be called, Greenwood the Great.
Now, here's Mirkwood up here.
I wanna know whether you're making a differentiation...
...between Thranduil and Legolas, who are Sindar...
...and the Elves who live in Mirkwood, their subjects...
...who are Avari or Nandor...
...or a mixture of Avari, Nandor and Sindar.
But they're lesser Elves than Thranduil and Legolas...
...in the Tolkien mythos.
Are you showing that differentiation...
...that these Elves are members of the Avari, who did not heed the call...
...around the shores of Lake Cuivienen when Orome came and called them to Valinor.
Are you taking that into consideration? Thank you.
Yes. The answer to your question, Stephen, is yes.
But I actually have a question for you, Stephen Colbert.
Now, you were very kind to invite me on to your show last year.
Anyone that appears on the show-- Jabez, have you got that mug?
You know, the Colbert one? Could I just borrow that for a second?
Anyone that appears on The Colbert Report show gets...
...a free mug, which is nice, but it is quite small.
And when I was sitting at the table being interviewed...
...there was a much bigger mug sitting there.
And, you know, I like to have a big cup of tea several times a day...
...and so I just happened to walk out with the largest size mug.
I don't know how, but this is the one that was on the table.
This is the one that your guests drink out of on air.
Now, let's just have a look at the difference between these two mugs.
I'll come closer to the camera.
There we go. Now, can you see the difference?
Basically, the one that you give away for free...
...has got dishwasher-proof ink on it.
The white ink stays.
The one that your guests drink out of...
I mean, it's all just worn away.
This used to say "The Colbert Report," and now it doesn't.
We've had this through the dishwasher maybe once or twice, and it just washed away.
So my question for you, Stephen, is that...
...the mug that the guests drink out of, do you ever clean it?
Do you ever worry about spreading germs?
When Peter steals something, he likes it to be of a certain quality.
I didn't steal it, Jabez. I just happened to find it in my hand...
...when I walked out onto the street. I don't know how that happened.
But apart from that, it does taste quite nice, the tea.
- Even if it happens to be secondhand, perhaps. - Yeah. Yeah.
Well, we do actually have a second Twitter question up.
"Do you always edit barefoot?"
Peter.
That's actually a very good question, and the answer is yes, I do.
I see things written about me...
...where they talk about me not wearing shoes on set...
...which I actually never do. If you look at any footage of me on set...
...I have to wear shoes because of health and safety.
I don't want a light to be dropped on my toe or something like that.
But in the relative comfort of the cutting room...
...I can put my feet up on the table and sit back, and it's fantastic.
Yeah, I wish I could do that.
Well, we have another special guest who would like to say hello.
So why don't we roll it and see who we've got?
Hi. Lee Pace here. For those of you who don't know...
...I play Thranduil, king of the Wood/and Elves The Desolation Of Smaug.
I heard that Peter was giving a sneak peek of the new film...
...and I figured I would log on and check it out.
I liked getting a brief glimpse of my character...
An Unexpected Journey...
...and the ancient animosity between the Elves of the woodland realm...
...and the Dwarves of Erebor.
And I think it's gonna be really intriguing to revisit that...
...but this time, it will be in my halls and on my terms.
And I don't think they're gonna like it.
- Elves are tricky, aren't they? - They are. They're very tricky.
And Dwarves don't trust them at all.
- And I don't blame you. - No.
But we do have another question, and this is actually one for me.
"Jed, what torture would you like to put Peter Jackson through...
...that was inflicted upon the actors?
Rotisserie? Barrel? Or maybe a combination of all of these things." Ha-ha-ha.
- Interesting. Tell me. - I'm not sure I'd wanna do any of those...
...because I'd quite like to work with you in the future.
But, yeah, probably the one that I would like to put Peter through is maybe...
...putting him on the rotisserie over the top of the fire.
- That looked incredibly uncomfortable. - It was very uncomfortable.
We were stacked on top of each other. We had...
...a harness, and on the back of it, it had metal plates hooked on to it.
And we had to go up in a certain order, so those who were first were up there longer.
Rather you than me. I was in quite a comfortable chair at the time.
Yeah, no, it was fun. It was fun. We actually have another special guest...
...another surprise guest video.
So we should probably have a look at that, see who it is.
Hello, I'm Billy Boyd.
I played Peregrin Took, or Pippin, in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
And I hear, tonight, Peter's doing a question and answers.
So I'd like an answer to a question, and that question is...
...in the Fellowship...
...we went as far as the Misty Mountains in Middle-earth...
...but I hear in The Hobbit, you go further east.
Will we be seeing any new wild lands in the next Hobbit film?
That's my question.
That's a very good question, Billy. Very good. Um...
I think the most scary of the lands that we're going to...
...in the new environments we're going to, is actually Mirkwood.
We saw that very, very briefly in The Unexpected Journey...
...but in The Desolation Of Smaug, the company of Dwarves get right into the...
...darkness, the heart of darkness, as it were, in Mirkwood.
Actually, Billy, if you remember in The Fellowship Of The Ring...
...and you should remember, it was only 10 years ago, urn...
...you guys went through the Misty Mountains, through the Mines of Moria...
...you came out and then the Fellowship, headed south, down the valley, to Lothlorien...
...then you took the Anduin River down to Amon Hen.
So you actually managed, very cleverly, to bypass the borders of Mirkwood entirely...
...which was probably a good thing. I can show you a bit of artwork.
Um...
I just pulled out a couple of pieces...
...to give everyone a glimpse of what Mirkwood is gonna look like.
Now, if we can zoom in on that. Are you able to get closer to it?
So, what we've designed and actually Gus Hunter did this art...
...is that there's tiny Dwarves in this great, big, looming, creepy forest.
I wanted to try to give it a sense of foreboding and grandeur.
And it used to be Greenwood the Great...
...but it has become sick and diseased...
...with this fortress of Dol Guldur, spreading evil through the forest.
And this is another view.
There's Dwarves there and there's a broken bridge...
...and they have to figure out a way to cross the stream.
So, yeah, I think that's gonna be an interesting environment.
- One of the scarier paths of the story. - That scene itself was amazing to work on.
It was pretty scary, actually. It was a very spooky set to work on.
And it had a kind of a dark feel about it even from a physical perspective.
- Yeah. - It was great.
We have another question from a special cast guest.
And I think we should cut to that and have a look and see who it is.
When I was working on my ADR...
...Philippa was naughty enough to show me...
...um, the unfinished mock-up of Thranduil's realm.
And it looked insanely cool...
...but it didn't have any of the amazing Peter Jackson love put into it...
...and so I'm wondering if, Peter, you can...
...verbally give us a glimpse...
...into what your vision and your take on Thranduil's realm will be.
Competing with a bird.
Yes. Let me show you, Evangeline.
And it must be frustrating because Evangeline was in the Woodland Realm, and yet...
...we were pretty much surrounded by green screens.
But I can give everyone a little look.
So Tolkien describes the Woodland Realm as being in a subterranean world...
...which is unusual for Elves because, usually, Dwarves live under the ground.
But nonetheless, that's what we've done...
...and this is a piece of artwork that John Howe did for us.
If we can have a look at that. It's the entrance to the Woodland Realm.
There's a narrow bridge that goes over a raging river...
...then you enter this Elvish kingdom through this door.
We wanted to make it seem like it's very defensive and impregnable.
This is really the only way to get into this kingdom.
And then once you're inside...
...we tried to figure out a way to make a cavernous underground world look Elvish...
...in the way that you expect a certain beauty and grandeur...
...so there's light filtering in through cracks in the ceiling...
...there's roots of trees that are fashioned into bridges...
...and this is sort of the feeling. We wanted it to be grand, like a cathedral...
...but at the same time, you know, this is not Rivendell...
...this isn't the gentle, friendly world of the Elves...
...that we're used to in these movies.
King Thranduil is no friend of Dwarves and it's, um...
Yeah, it's not a good time when you guys actually get held prisoner there for a while.
No, it's not. I didn't have a good time being in prison.
It's not something I wanna repeat.
And I actually think we should probably cut to the next Twitter question, if we have one.
Do we have one coming up here?
Um, actually, we're gonna cut to another guest video first...
...and then we'll come back to the Twitter question, so if we can cut to that now.
Pete. Hey. It's Dom. Merry.
Lord Of The Rings. Remember? Long hair, slightly pointy ears.
Big, hairy feet. Not quite as good-looking as I am now. Yeah, you remember. Um...
Heard you were doing that Hobbit questions and answer thing...
...and I wanted to be a little bit cheeky and ask a couple of questions myself.
First one, what's the best Peter Jackson rumor you've heard...
...that isn't true?
Second one, in comparison to J.R.R. Tolkien's work and your work...
...what's the thing that you're the happiest about...
...in the transferring over from the literature to the film?
Mine would be the casting.
You can never think about another Gimli...
...another Gandalf, another Frodo, another Merry, obviously.
This is the view...
...from my house.
Wild!
Hey, Dom, thank you. Um...
Your question.
The rumor, rumor question. Craziest rumor. Um...
The one that I think has made me laugh the most was just after Lord Of The Rings...
...and there was a rumor going around Wellington...
...that was pretty strong because several people came up to me and said:
"Is this really true?" Like they believed it.
Is that in order to avoid paying tax...
...I was going to move my entire family onto a ship...
...and live outside of the New Zealand Economic Zone...
...outside the 12 miles away from the coast, and sort of...
...live my life on a ship to avoid paying tax.
Apart from being seasick, I'm badly seasick...
...I'm very happy to live on land and very happy to pay tax.
So it was kind of a funny rumor.
- No one gets away with that. - Somebody starts these things and they just...
...in the case of these movies...
...the rumors tend to become fact...
...and you tend to see things reported in the newspaper that aren't remotely true.
- It's interesting, the world we live in. - Indeed.
Well, we do have another Twitter question now...
...and the question is, "Will the Necromancer play a larger role...
...in the plot of The Desolation Of Smaug...
...than it did in the first film?"
Uh, the answer is...
---yes.
Ha-ha-ha. - That's all I'm saying.
Very concise.
- So, Jed, thank you very much for... - Thank you.
- ...helping me get through this. - You're welcome.
- Jabez, thank you. - I wanted to thank the fans...
...and, of course, Peter, for taking time out of your busy schedule...
- ...editing the film to be with us. - Great. Now...
...this is really the first time we've had a chance to say hi to everyone in 2013.
And I'm sure that a lot of people watching this have been following our blogs...
...and just to let you know that the blogs will continue.
- In fact, this is almost like the first blog. - Quite a long one.
- We should've turned it into a trilogy. - We could. Ha-ha-ha.
But the blogs will continue...
...and we look forward to catching up with you during the year...
...as we move towards our release in December.
So thank you so much for taking the time to come here...
...and sit wherever you are in the world, whatever time it is...
...and put up with us blathering along, and thank you for buying our DVD.
Now it's time for breakfast.
Bye.