A Hobbit reunion in Wellington, NZ

A Hobbit reunion in Wellington, NZ

04 Jul 2013

Cast and crew of The Hobbit Trilogy have reunited in Wellington to film the remaining (pick-up) shots for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

Director Sir Peter Jackson has released his latest production video and the first for 2013, via his Facebook page, taking fans behind the scenes.

The shoot is underway for 10 weeks before Sir Peter Jackson heads back into the edit booth, with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug set to be released December 13 2013.

A kitchen full of corpses
Production video 11, takes fans behind the scenes at Stone St Studios on Miramar Peninsula in "Wellywood" during the first week of filming pick up shots.

Cast members including Orlando Bloom (Legolas) Evangaline Lilly (Tauriel), Martin Freeman (Bilbo), Richard Armitage (Thorin) and Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) have all been flown back to New Zealand’s capital city Wellington to film The Hobbit Trilogy’s final scenes.

As well as cast members, a huge amount of work has been done to rebuild the base and trailer park, including reconstructing sets and re-arranging costumes and props.

The video shows warehouses filled to the brim with props. Set Director Ra Vincent says every space is valuable with even the kitchen filled with corpses.

Details are extremely important, with Make-up and Hair Designer Peter King, spending a lot of time ensuring the bird poo on Radagast’s (Sylvester McCoy) head looks exactly the same from day to day!

Let’s dwarvicise
The Battle of Five Armies scenes are still to be shot for the final movie of the trilogy The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

Stunt coordinators have been taking the dwarf cast through a vigorous and extensive training regime so they are fighting fit for filming The Battle of Five Armies.

Dwarf Adam Brown (Ori) and fellow cast members are shown enjoying some "dwarvicise" in bright pink headbands and padded dwarf bellies.

"Open up the pelvis" jokes Jed Brophy (Nori) straining through a squatting exercise. While Mark Hadlow (Dori) clenches his fists saying "we are fit fighting machines!"

On location
Numerous scenes from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug have been filmed on location around New Zealand including the dwarves in barrel scene which was filmed at Pelorus River in Marlborough.

While filming in December 2011 the Pelorus River had an unexpected flood, cutting filming short, so a replica of the area has now been built at Stone Street to complete the pick-up shots.

Pelorus River is a popular canoeing, swimming, fishing and camping destination open year round for visitors to explore the famous Hobbit location.

The on-location set of Dale has also been revisited, the video showing crew pulling off coverings which had been there for over a year, and Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel) walking through a desolated village which is covered in snow.

Sad goodbyes
Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) and Orlando Bloom (Legolas) featured in both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies, an adventure that began 14 years ago.

This stage of filming has reached the end of their time working on Peter Jackson’s Tolkien tales, bringing sad goodbyes on set.

Sir Peter Jackson posted a teary photo with Sir Ian McKellen via his Facebook page with the caption "Seconds ago we finished our last shot with Gandalf. The end of an incredible adventure that began in 1999. I'm feeling very sad right now."

Orlando Bloom finished with a few beers and a hilarious Goodbye Orlando video filmed by Jackson "I’m taking the hobbits to Isengard."

About 'The Hobbit' Trilogy
The second in a trilogy of films adapting the enduring and popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug continues the adventures of title character Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) as he journeys with the Wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and 13 dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) on an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a production of New Line Cinema and MGM, with New Line managing production. Warner Bros Pictures is handling worldwide theatrical distribution, with select international territories as well as all international television distribution being handled by MGM.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opens worldwide beginning on Friday, December 13, 2013.

ENDS

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