Here is a summary of all the big happenings of the past two weeks!

Life is as busy as ever, plus I am working on several great projects I am really excited to show to you when they are done. As always, I enjoy your feedback, and I hope you enjoy this post!

A recap of this past week's events

The big news this week concerns The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Home Video release on DVD and Blu-ray, so you can expect a lot on that. Also, both Asmus Toys and the Gentle Giant have new The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings figurines. Aside from these, there are still interviews, videos, and more!

Another exciting week has come and gone!

An earthquake in New Zealand that troubled creatures of both land and air, more interviews of actors and the equally important behind-the-scenes sound-mixers and editors, and even a new poster!

Nine fantastic behind-the-scenes videos for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug!

These short 1-2 minute videos original appeared on YouKu, though they have since been uploaded to YouTube. They feature all the different aspects of film-making: directing, screenplay, art direction, costume design, makeup hairstyling, cinematography, vfx, sound editing, and much more!

The highlights and things I didn't have time to post from this past week!

Following the tradition started at the end of November, here are the latest interviews, videos, news bits, and everything else from the world of Tolkien fandom!

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Production Dairy #14

Behind the scene of the musical score of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug!

Another great video blog from Peter Jackson about the filming of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug!

I don't really have much to say except that it is awesome and you should watch it! 

If you really want to spoil your experience at the theatre,

by all means continue beyond the break, where I have posted six different clips from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which is now just nine days away! I highly encourage not watching them (even the behind-the-scenes ones, though they are extremely interesting.), but if you cannot wait nine days, go ahead. Watch them. 

So hard to keep up! Things are crazy just 10 days before the release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smuag!

Tons and tons of stuff has happened and most assuredly is happening right now in the world of Tolkien and Peter Jackson fandom! Perhaps most exciting of all was the world premiere of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in Hollywood last night! Many of the cast and crew were able to attend (full list beyond the break), and I am sure it would have been amazing to attend, but it was also cool to watch it live on YouTube (or Facebook, as the case may be), like I did. To find out more about this and many other things, go beyond the break. 

If you are waiting for a hard copy of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition

Here are a few videos that will tide you over. Among them are two scenes featuring Bilbo and Elrond, plus a new behind-the-scenes clip. However, if you are too impatient to wait for the release of the Extended Edition on DVD or BluRay, it is available on iTunes. 

New production photos of Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis, and, of course, Peter Jackson

Check out these awesome new behind-the-scenes images! Some of them are unsourced, and very well could be from a new production video coming out in a few months? What do think? Leave a comment!

UPDATE: The photos of Benedict Cumberbatch doing motion capture for Smaug comes from this video, apparently from the bonus material from the Extended Edition of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. 

Major spoilers revealed in a German Magazine

The August issue of the German magazine Cinema featured an article on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Much of the article is just a repeat of what we already know, but there were a few major spoilers. I will not give any of it away here, so you must proceed beyond the break to find out what is in that article. 

Keep up with live updates from Peter Jackson's Facebook page

Today is the last day of shooting for The Hobbit movies, perhaps the very last for film adaptions of Tolkien's novels ever. Head over to Peter Jackson's Facebook page to follow events as they happen, though, if you live in the USA, you'll have to stay up pretty late, as it is just after 11am in New Zealand right now. 

The Desolation of Smaug Production Video #1

Although this video did bring the sad news that there will not be a special sneak-peek at this year's Comic Con and no actors will be there to answer questions, we still get ten whole minutes of great behind-the-scenes footage! 

A new set for The Hobbit movies

Here is a photo of a set created specially for the ten week shooting period this summer. Most likely, it is Dale after it was attacked and destroyed by Smaug. However, there has been no official identification of this photo, so we are left to think what we will. 

An unused goblin design...

Looks a little like an alien. Anyways, this is a piece of artwork done by Andrew Baker, a creature and character designer at Weta Workshop. The selection he posted on his blog is particularly interesting because it includes several designs that were never used. It is even more interesting because it includes a lot of designs that were used. I hope you enjoy! 

Sorry! Instead of starting on Wednesday, May 15, it will instead begin on Monday, May 20.

Someone made a mistake! It was probably me, but, nonetheless, I posted false information, and I hope you will forgive me. It has been confirmed that the filming will indeed begin this Monday. We still do not know anymore about the scenes that will be shot, asides from more work on the Battle of Five Armies. 

The second round of shooting has begun!

The additional filming for The Hobbit movies began today, March 15. It will continue until the end of July. We are completely clueless as to the scenes that will be shot. Will there be more material from the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings? Which characters will return? We know nothing absolute, but there a buzz going around that we might see a return of Aragorn. I have already discussed this possibility in a previous post, but I reaffirm that nothing has yet been confirmed about anything. 

The Dwarves, the White Council, Wizards, Trolls, and more!

The other day I came across a slough of new videos on a Japanese website. They are the most interesting videos I have seen since the last official trailer, so be sure to watch at least a few of them. These videos contain exclusive behind-the-scenes info and interviews, so they are well worth the watch, even though they do have Japanese subtitles. 

Could this possibly be a statue of Smaug?

I personally think that this is nothing more than a false alarm, but there is no way I would pass this up, not matter unlikely it is. TheOneRing.net received a photo that may be a statue of Smaug set up in the foyer of the Roxy Cinema in Miramar, Wellington. It is not labeled, but it is in a spot that has hosted statues of past PJ films. MAJOR SPOILERS!