Warner Bros and New Line of have announced the new title and release date for the third The Hobbit film. As expected, the last film in the trilogy will keep the "There and Back Again" subtitle with a July 18, 2014 release date. The second film will now be called The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Other possible sub-titles had been Riddles in the Dark and Battle of Five Armies but neither title fit where the likely breaks will occur for each film. This does indicate that much of the second film will focus on the journey to Smaug's cave and the fight with Laketown. The third film will go from those events to build up and then depict The Battle of Five Armies which was completely skipped over in the novel as Bilbo was knocked out at the time.

The Hobbit Trilogy - Release Date
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - December 14, 2012
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - December 13, 2013
The Hobbit: There and Back Again - July 18, 2014

Third Hobbit Film Gets Title, Release Date. There are any Third Hobbit Film Gets Title, Release Date in here.

NZ Noldor Blog discovered the first look at King Thranduil, the father of Legolas. The image (left) is from the upcoming HarperCollins the kids activity book "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Almanac 2013". The character is played by Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies) is also called the Elvenking in The Hobbit novel who commands the elves of Mirkwood. In the novel he was involved with the capture of Bilbo and the Dwarves and leads the elf army in the Battle of Five Armies over the Erebor treasure that Smaug the Dragon hoarding.

First Look at King Thranduil. There are any First Look at King Thranduil in here.

Last November, I took a fantastical trip to New York City, where about 9 million movies have been shot. Only being there for a few days, I made it to just one famous filming location...

Horror Movie Locations I'd Like to Visit. There are any Horror Movie Locations I'd Like to Visit in here.

Got an email today from somebody behind the upcoming British zom-com film Cockneys vs. Zombies and I feel like I totally need to share it. I'd heard the title of the movie floating around the Internet for a while but never felt the need to look more into it because... well, I don't really know why. But now that I have, I am stoked for this movie, as I adore zombie movies and British comedy. So here's the official Redband trailer for the movie and the amazing looking opening titles (which was what was emailed to me). Enjoy!

Cockneys vs. Zombies hits UK theaters this Friday, August 31!







Oh my gosh, the part where the old guy is getting away from the zombies with his walker fucking KILLED me.

Cockneys vs. Zombies Trailer and Opening Credit Sequence. There are any Cockneys vs. Zombies Trailer and Opening Credit Sequence in here.

At one point Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy) was set to direct The Hobbit (now trilogy) with Peter Jackson as executive producer. He participated through most of pre-production of the movie but had to leave due to other obligations when it became clear that the film would probably be about a year late in starting due to then MGM's bankruptcy (WB more or less has taken over financing the films). Based on comments from Jackson, that design athestic informed Peter's take but he did make many alternations to fit his vision. Quote below, video here. Also here is a new image of Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield sporting the elvish sword Orcrist aka "Goblin Cleaver" that Bilbo helps find on their adventure. Goblin and Orc mean the same thing in Middle-Earth.

[Guillermo] had designed a lot of the movie . . . I looked at his designs when he took over and a lot of his designs are very Guillermo . . . it was very much stuff that you would recognize from Pan's Labyrinth or Hellboy. It was his artistic vision and I couldn't make that movie. I looked at his designs and I said the only person who can make a Guillermo Del Toro movie is Guillermo. It shouldn't be me. I can't put my head into somebody else's idea — I have to generate it from the beginning. So really I redesigned the film pretty much. Some of Guillermo's DNA is in there — there were some things he did that I thought were pretty cool and I've taken bits of pieces of his stuff — kind of altering it and changing it as I saw it. But the film was largely redesigned.

Del Toro DNA Still Part of The Hobbit, New Thorin Pic. There are any Del Toro DNA Still Part of The Hobbit, New Thorin Pic in here.

While Lego may have introduced their own The Lord of the Rings lego sets, none is likely to come close to what Lego master builders can come up with. The latest example is from Blake Baer and Jack Bittner who created The Lord of the Rings' Rivendell completely from Lego. What is the amazing is the mix of colors to create this level detail in the "rock" and buildings along with all the "plants" to add additional level of detail. Video tour below, full gallery can be found here.

(via Brothers Brick)

Lego Rivendell Diorama. There are any Lego Rivendell Diorama in here.

New Zealand Tourism is getting ready to launch a new campaign to promote the country as a tourist destination using The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and the standing Hobbiton set as its centerpiece complete with slogan "100% Middle-earth 100% Pure New Zealand." The slogan reflects that ultimately all six films will have been filmed in New Zealand as the many locations of Middle-Earth. (via TOR)

New Zealand's New Middle-Earth Tourist Campaign. There are any New Zealand's New Middle-Earth Tourist Campaign in here.

While Peter Jackson would probably prefer as many theaters as possible screen The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey at 48 frames per second (FPS), Warner Bros indicated a few weeks ago only a few locations would actually screen the movie at the frame speed. Most of the likely 3000 screens in the US will have it in traditional 24fps speed. However, if you are in that rare (unannounced) location that gives you a chance to watch it at 48FPS, you now have an extra incentive to give it a try as theaters have agreed to not charge extra for the format. At least for this movie. I am sure they reserve the right to add a surcharge to the sequel if the new format proves popular.

No Extra Charge for The Hobbit At 48FPS Screening . There are any No Extra Charge for The Hobbit At 48FPS Screening in here.

I've always loved both the book and film versions of Pet Sematary, as any awesome horror fan should, but just recently I reread the book and then watched the movie again. And it's weird, but it wasn't until this last trip to Ludlow, Maine with the Creeds that I finally realized what Pet Sematary is.

On the back of my terribly tattered older copy of the book is a quote from a Publishers Weekly review that states that Pet Sematary (keep your pants on, spellcheck... the misspelling is intended) is "the most frightening book Stephen King has ever written." Truthfully, I've never agreed with this hyperbole before. I was always, like, 'What's the biggie? It's just about bringing pets and people back to life via an Indian burial ground! There's scarier shit out there than that.' But now I know - no, there's not. This book is absolutely horrific and I can't believe it's taken this long for it to really hit me. And my revelation is probably not news to anybody else who has also read the book, but I think I had to look at it in a different context than I had before to really get it.

Pet Sematary is so frightening because it is about the complete destruction of an innocent family. Duh, right? But I think now that that is a really important fact to keep in mind when you're thinking about what's happening on screen or while you're reading the book. It's about a family being completely annihilated by horrific violence and evil. King's stories usually include ordinary people in extraordinary situations, but this is a family.

And what really sunk this thought into my head was comparing the Creeds to my sister's family. She has two boys - one is eight years old and one is just about to turn two, the same age as Gage Creed. Having no children of my own, they're the ones I think about when I have to deal with this kind of stuff in movies or books, and thinking about the events in Pet Sematary happening to them chills me to the bone. It terrifies and horrifies me to no fucking end. Imagining my little nephew, cute as a button, running into the road, laughing his adorable laugh, not seeing a huge tanker truck barreling toward him about to end his short life? Imagining how inconsolable my sister and brother-in-law would be? Gah, I can't even think about it now.

Though the novel ends rather ambiguously with Rachel coming back to Louis from the dead, I'm not assuming any kind of happy ending here. I think it's safe to say that Rachel either killed Louis, or Louis killed her and then himself. Little Ellie is the only one left alive, but I'd say she probably lives out the rest of her days in a padded room, rocking back and forth with foam coming out of her mouth, muttering things about the Pet Sematary and Oz the Gweat and Tewwible.

King has said that many of his story ideas come from asking the question what if? And the idea behind Gage's death came from the almost exact incident happening to King when his son was a child. The boy was playing with a kite and started running off toward the road, which had trucks constantly blazing past their house. King ran after him, hearing a truck coming not far away. His son thankfully did not get hit, but that what if? question stayed with him. I'd always known this story and the fact that it's one of the reasons King always felt that he had "gone too far" with Pet Sematary - even he has said that the novel is the most frightening one he has ever written because the story hit too close to home.

I understand now, Stephen, I truly do. These macabre and unspeakable things are not things that you ever want to come near the people you love - the people you love more than yourself - and I'm not just talking about the gruesome idea of turning a two-year-old into a murderous zombie. No one should have to bury a child, or even a beloved pet, so far before their time. The grief that Louis Rachel, and Ellie have when Gage dies is powerful, as is the guilt that Jud Crandall has for setting all this in motion.

"The most frightening book Stephen King has ever written." I  don't think it means frightening in a "Boo!" way at all, but more like an idea that scares you to the core and hits you where it hurts the most. I may have scoffed at this simple review of Pet Sematary before, but bringing this story closer to my heart, with the image of my sweet little nephew in mind, I have to say that I completely agree with the statement now.

Another Look at Pet Sematary. There are any Another Look at Pet Sematary in here.

A new The Hobbit Calendar has provided the first clear look at the character of Radagast the Brown as played by Sylvester McCoy. There have been the occasional blurred image but this is the first solid look of the actor in full makeup. The image was posted by ThorinOakenshield.net along with other images from the calendar.

Radagast is a wizard that is part of the White Council that is charged with stopping Sauron *Necromancer). The character does not exist in The Hobbit book and played an unintentional minor part Gandalf's misadventures with Sarumon in LOTR. His part so minor that it was completely removed from the trilogy without disrupting the story a bit. His role in the Jackson version of the book remains a mystery. (via TOR)

Radagast the Brown Full Costume Revealed. There are any Radagast the Brown Full Costume Revealed in here.

One of the things that is interesting about writing about something like The Hobbit films compared to Transformers or Star Trek is the characters, plot and events are known. Technically there can't be any spoilers because all you have to do is pick up the books or hit up a wiki link to find out for yourself what happened. As a result the question for fans is more about the execution. How will favorite moments be portrayed on film? What changes will be made? What will be added and cut? Things like that. It reminds you that the journey a story take is just as important as knowing the specific “spoiler” details. The details don’t matter without the journey and the journey doesn’t matter without the details.

With the announcement of a third film, one of the new questions is exactly where will Peter Jackson choose to break up the films and introduce Smaug the Dragon played by Benedict Cumberbatch. In a recent interview he provided his own theory on how The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey may end that actually makes a lot of sense.

I think my eye might open at the end of the first film and then you’ll get the rest of me in the second.

If true it almost means that The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug would be a fitting title for the second film as it would likely focus on events from Laketown to the final fight with Smaug. Almost wish they would just go with The Hobbit (for part one), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (for part two) and The Hobbit: There and Back Again (for part three). I guess we will find out in a little less than four months.

Smaug 1st Appearance Hint?. There are any Smaug 1st Appearance Hint? in here.

There are many things that made The Lord of the Rings trilogy a true classic of cinema. One of them is the brilliant and beautiful score of Howard Shore. His work on the film is that rare cinema score that sounds just as good playing solo as it does when part of the film. Doug Adams, author of The Music of The Lord of the Rings Films (and future book The Music of The Hobbit Films), has posted on his blog that Howard Shore and the London Symphony officially start recording the score for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. His full post can be found here, main part below.

This post is going online on Monday, August 20, 2012. Why? Because today marks the official start of The Hobbit recording sessions in London. Today the musical world of Middle-earth begins expanding once again. Today, you can no longer say that you know every note of Shore's music for Tolkien's world. In fact, you only know about half of it. (This is a ballpark figure; I have no idea how long the three Hobbit films will be!) Today the subject of The Music of the Hobbit Films exists not just in concept, but in reality. Today a new journey begins ...

(via TOR)

The Hobbit Score Recording Begins. There are any The Hobbit Score Recording Begins in here.

Phew, I made it, folks. Last Project Terrible review! Sure, it's about three weeks late and I think my PT buds gave up on me a long time ago anyway, but I always try to finish what I start. Craig Edwards of the wittily titled blog Let's Get Out of Here! decided to make all of his movie choices be those that were filmed in his home state of North Carolina and so I was the lucky one to get Butchered.

Project Terrible: Butchered (2010). There are any Project Terrible: Butchered (2010) in here.

Whatever you do... DON'T look on Netflix for this ridiculously inept attempt at a horror movie. My fourth movie for Project Terrible is so far the very worst, so kudos to Thomas at Cinema Gonzo for picking out the "perfect" PT movie for me to waste my time on watch.

For extra credit in their history class, a group of college classmates decide to spend Halloween night in an abandoned mental asylum to find out the truth about what really happened there ten years ago. Little do they know that a couple of the inmates have never left the asylum, and one by one the students encounter Wendell and his sidekick Smiley, who kills anyone who comes into their "home."

Though the story is really cliched, it very well could have made for a good horror film. And I do applaud the script writers for including a bit more to the story than just what is on the surface. One of the students, Melissa, is very shy and doesn't have any friends. She has been raised by her older sister for the past ten years after their mother died and as the movie goes on, you learn more about what their connection to the asylum is. I couldn't believe that I actually found myself interested in this backstory and wanted to find out what happened. The girls playing Melissa and her sister are the best in the bunch and, dare I say it, they might actually have a chance at real careers if they never work with these guys who made this movie again.

The other actors/characters are a major fail. We have a douchebag who continuously comes on to other girls right in front of his girlfriend, two hot lesbians (their Halloween costume is one girl dressed like a dominatrix with the other girl on a leash), a slut who freely admits to prostituting herself to make money for college during a game of Truth or Dare, and two girls who used to be popular in high school and still act like they are in high school. And one of them is as dumb as a box of rocks. "Oh my god, everyone knows he totally has the hots for Angela!" Say that line in your best Valley Girl impersonation and you'll get what one of these actors was like to watch on screen.

One of my favorite bad things about Don't Look in the Cellar is that they make almost no attempt to have their setting look like an actual asylum. They literally filmed the movie in somebody's house and did not change any of the furnishings or decor. Why yes, I totally believe that we are in a crazyhouse that has been abandoned for ten years, with only two crazy people taking care of it the whole time. Well, either the filmmakers couldn't change their location or crazy people are really good at housekeeping, because the "asylum" is extremely tidy and clean. The crazy people even seem to have updated one of the kitchens with nice stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. Pfft. The filmmakers do decorate one room of the house to look like an infamous padded room - but that doesn't really help their case. Lazy work, set decorators, lazy.

The kill scenes are really bad. Smiley likes to use a machete mostly to dispose of the college idiots, but I guess no effects person could found anywhere so the kills are beyond amateur. Put a little blood on the machete, have the actor conveniently double over so the camera can't see the entry point of the machete, and spray some blood on the actor's face. Bingo! That'll look great, right?! There is a hand chopped off and a head chopped off, but both happen so quick that you don't see much of anything.

One thing that really bothers me about movies like this is when they jump so abruptly to new scenes and characters with no transitions or establishing shots to show us where we are - especially when the scenes are just stupid throwaways. One minute we're watching two girls talking in their house, and then the very next shot is some random crazy or drunk guy walking into the cellar of the asylum and getting killed by Smiley. Don't Look in the Cellar does something like several times and it really peeved me off. Actually, pretty much everything about this movie peeved me off, so that's not really saying much, is it?

All in all, it's a pretty terrible, terrible movie. I don't know how the whole Netflix-buying-movies-to-put-on-streaming thing works, but if this were my movie, I certainly would not have taken the opportunity to have my pathetic attempt at filmmaking be made available for people the world over to ridicule. I only hope these filmmakers have a backup plan for when their careers don't work out. Shoe salesmen, perhaps.

Project Terrible: Don't Look in the Cellar (2010). There are any Project Terrible: Don't Look in the Cellar (2010) in here.

A new video has been posted for the next Lord of the Rings game called Guardians of Middle-Earth. The game is a "defense of the ancients" style format that has you playing as a "hero" character that tries to destroy the enemies base while defending their own and levels up as he kills enemies. This first battle profile gives you a look at Legolas and the Witch-King. The game is set for a December 2012 release on XBox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. I assume the price will be in the $10 range but nothing official has been announced.

Guardians of Middle-Earth Battle Profile One. There are any Guardians of Middle-Earth Battle Profile One in here.

Yesterday a new trailer was released for Lego Lord of the Rings that is scheduled to come out on October 30th, 2012. The trailer shows off the light touch they have planned for the game as it Legoizes the entire trilogy.

Lego Lord of the Rings Gamescon Trailer. There are any Lego Lord of the Rings Gamescon Trailer in here.

For me, there are two kinds of bad movies: There are the fun bad movies that you can laugh at (or with) because both you and the movie know that they are bad, and there are the bad movies that are not fun to watch at all and instead just make you really pissed off because the movie thinks it is being all clever and awesome when it is totally NOT. Piranha DD is among the latter category. Indeed, this movie would have been better suited to be a part of Project Terrible because I have just been royally peeved about it since watching it.

(And please don't hate me, Project Terrible friends, for I know that I am late with my last two movies. For some reason, blogging has been really hard for me lately.)

In this sequel, the ferocious piranha that wreaked havoc one year earlier at Lake Victoria have spawned in a nearby lake. With incredibly bad timing, the fish find a way into the pipes that supply a large waterpark, which is about to have its big grand opening day.

I remember being initially excited about a sequel to the amazingly awesome Piranha remake when news first broke. Piranha was a campy gore-fest that won major cool points with me with the Spring Break massacre sequence, where there was a gore gag one right after the other and the effects work from KNB was outstanding. And with the success of Piranha, a sequel was more than welcome. But when I finally rented Piranha DD, I suddenly remembered why I had not rushed out to the theaters to see it - the movie was directed by John Gulager.

In case you don't know, John Gulager is a terrible director. I caught him in action when the filming of his first movie Feast was the focus of the television show Project Greenlight and I wondered how in the hell this total pussy could be a director. Feast was a terrible movie, all the more so because of this dude's inept approach to filmmaking. To further make this assertion true, Gulager does absolutely nothing with Piranha DD except make it an incredibly retarded and disjointed stinkfest that pales in comparison to the original.

The pacing of the movie is off by a mile, as it starts out somewhat okay - except for the non-explanation of how the piranha managed to come back in the first place (wait, what? They were living in a dead cow's belly and when it farts, they're back? What?). Then the movie goes from moving too fast with the story to moving a bit too slow to... well, to not having a real story at all. So many things are wrong with the story, the main one being that the characters never involve any real authority figures when they discover the piranha! Maddy and Shelby encounter one on the dock and they kill it. They have fucking tangible PROOF that there are piranha in the lake and they don't tell ANYBODY. They go to see Christopher Lloyd, the piranha guy or whoever he is, but he doesn't help and his only purpose is to explain how the piranha can get into the waterpark through the outflow pipes.

It was fun to see Lloyd reprise his role, but most of the other actors are miscast simply because they should be in better movies than this. David Koechner as Chet is the only exception, as he is the same kind of smarmy but slightly lovable guy I've seen him as in other movies, so he's totally perfect for this character. By the way, I know a guy who knows a guy whose uncle is David Koechner. That's right, people, I am *this* close to Hollywood. Anyway. Katrina Bowden was fantastic in Tucker and Dale vs. Evil but here in her relatively small role of Shelby - the girl who has a piranha come out of her cooch - she does the best she can and that's really all I can say. Ving Rhames could have been used so much more here, instead his role seems like an afterthought.

Don't even get me started on The Hoff. I don't have the mental strength to relive his scenes right now. Let's just say that every minute he was on screen was some of the most appallingly bad acting and dialogue I have ever had the displeasure of suffering through.

One thing a sequel usually does is make the gore bigger and better than the first one, but Piranha DD falls immensely short in that regard. The piranha attacks are rather boring with hardly any gore to talk about. This movie also boasts the second most impossible decapitation I've ever seen. The first one was in Hatchet 2 when a dude is decapitated by human intestines. In this movie, Chet loses his head by one of those plastic decoration things with all the triangle flags on it. That... just... wouldn't happen. At all. Ever. Then, to make this scene worse, his flying decapitated head is caught by a topless woman who screams while holding the head between her breasts and jiggling them. And the slow motion! Holy fuck, if I never see another unnecessary and cheesy slow motion shot in my entire life, it will be too soon.

So in case I didn't make myself clear, I hated Piranha DD. Fucking hated it. The direction, acting, and editing are just plain horrible, and the whole mess of a movie was a complete waste of time and money for everyone involved. To John Gulager: Please do me a favor and stay the fuck away from my beloved horror movies.

You little ginger moron.



Sidenote: Did anyone else notice the shot of the girl with a tattoo right above her privacy area that said "Fine dinin' "? Ew.

Movie Review: Piranha DD (2012). There are any Movie Review: Piranha DD (2012) in here.

Variety is reporting that a cut of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey running at 48 frames per second (or HFR for high frame rate) may only get a limited release when the movie comes out this December. It was assumed it would get as wide a release as possible, at least for the theatres that were upgraded to handle the frame rate.

For the last 90 or so years movies have played at 24fps but Peter Jackson believes that doubling the frame rate will add a new level of immersion and detail to movies. However, a screening of footage at CinemaCon this April was completely trashed by movie blogs and critics as being too realistic by making everything look like a movie set. It seems WB was scared off by the criticism and decided that a gradually release of the format was needed with each Hobbit movie enjoying a more widespread release of the 48fps format then the movie before it.
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Lego has updated their Lord of the Rings website with a new video that shrinks the four short videos summarizing the trilogy into a two minute video that ends with a little teaser for Lego The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey with date of Winter 2012. The video can be found here. In addition the site has the flash game called "The Siege of Helm's Deep." Hit the bright lights on the map to initate various mini-games.

Lego Lord of the Rings Hobbit Tease, Online Game. There are any Lego Lord of the Rings Hobbit Tease, Online Game in here.

Trailer 1.1 is now online for your enjoyment. The unofficial numbering is due to the trailer being nearly identical to the first trailer except for three very brief scenes. The trailer has been showing off and on in theaters but be surprised if most people noticed the difference. Below is trailer 1.1, the video after that is trailer 1 so you can compare. Here are the differences:

0:23 - Bilbo’s reaction to Gandalf arrival to Bag End
1:57 - Bilbo hiding behind a tree in Mirkwood Forest
1:59 - Gandalf, the dwarves, and Bilbo running through forest, enemy not shown

Trailer 1.1
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Trailer 1.1. There are any The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Trailer 1.1 in here.

It seems that Warner Bros and MGM have a lot of confidence in Peter Jackson as they agreed to a third The Hobbit film without a budget or script. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jackson's decision to pursue a third film kicked off a large volume of meetings as they worked towards a decision.

"If anybody had been a big hindrance, it wouldn't have happened," says a source with ties to the movies. "It was such a short window of time to make this decision, if anybody had said no, it would have been two movies."

The Hobbit writing team of Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens started the ball rolling in a meeting with in early July in a meeting with executive producer Alan Horn, New Line's Toby Emmerich and Carolyn Blackwood. While the writers went back to New Zealand for pick-up shots, the three executives started working on getting a deal done. This including locking up the cast before the official announcement.

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Details on 3rd Hobbit Undetermined. There are any Details on 3rd Hobbit Undetermined in here.

Italian website HobbitFilm has posted the below images of official 3D glasses for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Much like with a simliar promotion for the last Harry Potter film, the 3D glasses will be available at select theatres for an extra cost when the film premieres on December 14th, 2012. The unusually look is so in part so the "uniquely designed folding arm frame and hammer forged steel look." Not sure what that means, they look like a key to me when folded up, something that fits since a key is needed to enter the Lonely Mountains in the films.

Official The Hobbit 3D Glasses. There are any Official The Hobbit 3D Glasses in here.