Desolation of Smaug sneak peek (spoilers of course)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

True enough. I just wonder how far beyond that it is.

[Dave_LF]

It's the one thing that has been progressively annoying me more and more. And in this case, he really isn't that vague about it at all. He says straight out ""It's part of the appendices that Tolkien wrote, and it's part of the expansion of 'The Hobbit' that we're doing." Not much vague about that.

Is it possible he meant that the subplot the scene is part of was drawn from the appendices, rather than the scene itself? Because that much would be true, at least. Even if so, a casual viewer would probably get the wrong impression, but I'd be inclined to view the ambiguity as an honest mistake.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

To an extent, I can accept that. But when these types of comments are combined with his repeated comments like the one in the "A Hobbit's Tale" video Elen linked to in the DVD thread, claiming that "The Hobbit"was Tolkien's life's work and how the Appendices were really the extended notes Tolkien left from his aborted attempt to rewrite TH, it really begins to appear that he has completely confloggled himself.

[Elentári]

It's the one thing that has been progressively annoying me more and more. And in this case, he really isn't that vague about it at all. He says straight out ""It's part of the appendices that Tolkien wrote, and it's part of the expansion of 'The Hobbit' that we're doing." Not much vague about that.

Is it possible he meant that the subplot the scene is part of was drawn from the appendices, rather than the scene itself? Because that much would be true, at least. Even if so, a casual viewer would probably get the wrong impression, but I'd be inclined to view the ambiguity as an honest mistake.

I would say he's deliberately fudging the issue in a lot of instances regarding not only the Nazgûl tombs/Morgul blade storyline but also the Azog history change. The only time I've heard the plot change really clarified is by Philippa Boyens in her podcast for EMPIRE, when she said that the canon storyline had "too many layers" - having Bolg out to avenge his father's death at Azanulbizar was "too removed" for the audience, who also needed to see Thror's death avenged in real-time!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The modified version is reportedly now online for those who have a code.

[Elentári]

The modified version is reportedly now online for those who have a code.

Apparently, according to AinurOlorin on TORn more than half of the film related content, including the promised clip, has been COMPLETELY edited out!

Modified = with the exception of some great Thranduil moments, most of the good conduct is edited out.

WTH WB???

[sauronsfinger]

The Sunday viewing was handled very badly and now this only compounds their sins.

I feel like the college kid who was promised a wild weekend in Vegas only to be given a club sandwich and a coke at the Denny's in Reno and then was driven right back home.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

sf (and anyone else interested), there is a download of the Gandalf and Radagast in the High Fells clip, and a short other clip with a lot of the the other production footage, at http://depositfiles.com/files/erclqoaqd. The file is 23.27 mb. I had no problem downloading using the "regular mode" without paying for the "gold service". The quality of the video is quite good.

The whole original sneak peek is reputedly also availabe at http://depositfiles.com/files/387pnsv5y, but it is just too big for me to bother with. The file size is 468.16 mb, and the download time with the regular service is reputed to be 200 minutes (although the smaller file took me only five minutes to download, whereas they said it would take 10).

Of course, you didn't see any of this here.

[Elentári]

PJ has posted a 6 minute clip of the sneak peek on his Facebook page

Thanks to everyone who tuned into our Live Event last week. I've never done anything like that before, and I was pretty nervous. Hope it was ok.

If you saw it, it was a pretty accurate picture of what life is like at the moment. Jabez and I sit in that editing room all day, every day, editing the second Hobbit movie, and we actually start on the third next week! A lot of that movie was shot nearly a year ago, so I'm looking forward to seeing it come alive, shot by shot in the cutting room. It's like assembling one of those complex 2000 piece jigsaw puzzles.

For us, this is really the being of 2013, so I look forward to posting a bunch more stuff as we work through the year.

I think that an edited version of the Live Event is being made available over at the official Hobbit site, and Warner Bros have kindly let me post a 6 min excerpt here, to give everyone who missed it a sense of what it was like.

Cheers,
Peter J

Oh, and eagle-eyed fans might spot some unexpected additions in this special April 1st edited version of the original livestream...

[Alatar]

Any chance you could tell me where the "unexpected additions" are? Or even what they are?

Don't really want to sit through the whole thing again.

[Elentári]

The whole thing? It's only 6 mins, Al!

Anyway, apparently PJ placed some items in shot to get the fans going - a couple of scripts - one falls out when he pulls out some concept art and he puts it back in again, at around 4:51. The other is earlier - at 2.39 look for
a script on Jabez' shelf!

[sinister71]

To an extent, I can accept that. But when these types of comments are combined with his repeated comments like the one in the "A Hobbit's Tale" video Elen linked to in the DVD thread, claiming that "The Hobbit"was Tolkien's life's work and how the Appendices were really the extended notes Tolkien left from his aborted attempt to rewrite TH, it really begins to appear that he has completely confloggled himself.

Either he really believes that or he is trying to make the masses believe that whole line of BS. I don't get it, what Tolkien wrote is SO much better than the nonsense Jackson is making up and claiming to be a part of the appendices.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It's a mystery!

[sinister71]

It's a mystery!

It is... a complete mystery.

almost as much a mystery to me as why did Peter Jackson bother? if the story of the hobbit wasn't good enough why bother?...one word springs to mind MONEY!

he was able to take a great story litter it with made up fan fiction that makes no sense in context of what Tolkien wrote and put something out the mass public has no idea is false and untrue compared to what JRR Tolkien wrote

[Voronwë the Faithful]

That's easy. He felt that he could make films that he would enjoy, and that others would as well. And he was right. I for one am very glad that he did. For all of the problems with AUJ (which in my opinion don't particularly exceed those of any of Jackson's LOTR films), for me he still captures something of the unique spirit of Tolkien's work, in a way that the previous effort at filmiming The Hobbit completely failed. Like with the LotR films., what he got right still greatly transcends what he got qrong.

I guess once a transcendentalist, always a transcendentalist.

[sinister71]

That's easy. He felt that he could make films that he would enjoy, and that others would as well. And he was right. I for one am very glad that he did. For all of the problems with AUJ (which in my opinion don't particularly exceed those of any of Jackson's LOTR films), for me he still captures something of the unique spirit of Tolkien's work, in a way that the previous effort at filming The Hobbit completely failed. Like with the LotR films., what he got right still greatly transcends what he got qrong.

I guess once a transcendentalist, always a transcendentalist.

I think when he stuck to the book he got it almost perfect I will say its all the OTT nonsense and trying to simply out do LOTR is where I find fault with many parts of the Hobbit.

Had he just made a set of films that fit with LOTR instead of trying to overshadow them I might agree more. I guess I see where these films could have had the same tone and feel as LOTR even had a more innocent feel at times but not been OTT and IMO overshadowing the previous trilogy