This page contains articles relating to the upcoming movie The Hobbit. It is the prequel to The Lord of The Rings trilogy. The movie casts Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins. Please visit LMR's Martin Freeman Page - Home and LMR's The Hobbit Page - Home.
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Martin Freeman: "The Hobbit is the biggest film I'll ever do"
"There are inevitably bits that you'll wish you were better in, but Peter Jackson is a very skilled director and he knows Middle Earth better than anybody else"
If you're wondering what's become of Sherlock's Martin Freeman, you'll be pleased to know he's been rather busy of late. After spending the last eighteen months filming his lead role in Peter Jackson's upcoming blockbuster The Hobbit, Martin's star is about to be sent stratospheric with the release of the first film in the trilogy on 14 December 2012.
He plays Bilbo Baggins - adoptive father of Elijah Wood's Frodo in Tolkien's epic tales - and spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com about his experiences of filming in New Zealand with much of the same production team as its enormously successful predecessor, The Lord of the Rings.
"There was a big contingent of new blood. The mixture of people who'd done Rings and people who hadn't was a nice one - I wasn't the only person coming into a club. We all looked after each other and you couldn't be in a friendlier place than New Zealand - they're pathologically friendly.
"I loved the Lord of the Rings films - I hadn't read the books, but I thoroughly enjoyed Peter's take on them. And I have, of course, read The Hobbit - I love the scenes in Gollum's cave. The first bit we filmed was when Bilbo and Gollum (played by Andy Serkis) have a great theatrical scene which consists of telling each other riddles, with Bilbo's life depending on getting these riddles right. It's a beautifully written scene and Andy Serkis as Gollum is just a star in every regard."
And what about his Sherlock co-star Benedict Cumberbatch who's also involved in the project, portraying deadly dragon Smaug? "Benedict and I did cross over very briefly - he was out there after Christmas doing his bit. I saw him for just one day."
Widely known for his roles in The Office and Sherlock, Freeman readily admits The Hobbit is "the biggest film I'll ever do". So is he nervous ahead of its much-anticipated release?
"I'm excited about seeing it - I want to like it, I want to be pleased with it, and I want to be proud of it. There are inevitably bits that you'll wish you were better in, but Peter Jackson is a very skilled director and he knows Middle Earth better than anybody else.
"I'm very hopeful, but also nervous because I want to please myself first of all, and I also hope everyone else likes it."
'The Hobbit' to be released in Dolby Atmos
Middle-earth will sound more realistic in "The Hobbit."
Dolby Laboratories Inc. and director Peter Jackson's Park Road Post Production announced Wednesday that "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" will be mixed and released in Dolby Atmos, the company's immersive new sound system that features two extra arrays of overhead speakers and the ability to direct sounds to individual speakers inside movie theaters.
"(Jackson) felt it was going to make a big difference in how he tells stories," said Stuart Bowling, Dolby's senior technical marketing manager. "He doesn't want people to just go and observe his movies. He wants you to feel like you're part of the experience of the stories that's he's trying to tell on the screen and allow you to be part of Middle-earth."
The director of the Oscar-winning "The Lord of the Rings" films adapted J.R.R. Tolkien's tale of Bilbo Baggins, set in the fictional realm of Middle-earth 60 years before "The Lord of the Rings." Besides the standard 2-D format, Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures are releasing the series in high-frame-rate 3-D, IMAX and other 3-D formats.
Bowling said Dolby's goal is to have the Atmos platform installed in 80 to 100 theaters in time for "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," which is scheduled to premiere on Dec. 14.
The second and third films, "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" and "The Hobbit: There and Back Again," are set for release Dec. 13, 2013, and July 18, 2014.
Other movies slated to be released in the Atmos format include Fox's "Chasing Mavericks" and "Life of Pi." Disney-Pixar's "Brave" was the first film to debut with the audio format earlier this year.
Bowling said the company expects more than 15 films to be released in Atmos next year and hoped to have the system in 1,000 theaters by the end of next year.
"Dolby Atmos is fantastic from a sound quality position," said John Neill, head of sound at Park Road Post Production. "We can now hear full range surround speakers, meaning that when we pan from the front to surround, the sound does not change in quality. The overhead speakers give us the opportunity to place the theater patron really in the location."
Jackson shot "The Hobbit" in 3-D and at 48 frames a second, twice the speed that's been the standard since the 1920s. He received a mixed reception for high-frame-rate preview footage of "The Hobbit" at the Cinema Con theater owner's convention last year. Some thought the images were too clear and realistic, taking away from the magic of the film medium.
Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner Inc.; Fox is owned by News Corp.
Do not let web site title fool you. The site contains various reviews about the movie.
Susanna Lazarus
Radio Times
October 22, 2012
Associated Press
October 24, 2012
