Gathered Nettles: Two Sisters Obsessing over YA Lit

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

If any of you out there are like me then you are GOING CRAZY this week in anticipation of the impending release of Peter Jackson’s first installment of the Hobbit trilogy. Well, to help tide you over here are some links to exciting Hobbit developments in the news.

Luckily the people over at Entertainment Weekly are just as excited as all of us nerdy fans (or at least they know how to capitalize on that excitement!). Here’s a look at this week’s Hobbit-featured issue. Here are details about the next movie, due out December 13th, 2013, The Desolation of Smaug. Here’s some information on Legolas’ role in the next two films, and more important, a photo of Orlando Bloom as Legolas in which he looks prettier than ever:

Orlando Bloom and Luke Evans in There and Back Again

More from Entertainment Weekly: Here are details about the Hobbit’s world premiere in Wellington, New Zealand, here’s a video about the music for the film composed by the brilliant Howard Shore, and here is an interview with director, Peter Jackson, about the film’s reception so far, including six clips from the new movie.

Part of the reason why I love Peter Jackson so much is because of his commitment to the fans, exhibited here in the latest Production Video in the series of behind-the-scenes videos that function as a visual diary of the making of The Hobbit films. You can watch two hour-long videos of footage from the world premiere also on The Hobbit movie website, here. To read about PJ’s controversial decision to shoot the film in 48 frames per second as opposed to the traditional 24 frames per second, check out this article in The Huffington Post. Here are photos of the cast posing with their miniature Lego selves. And here is Ian McKellan on why Jackson’s decision to turn the book into three films is not just a money-making venture but an act of real artistic integrity.

And just in case your desire for all things Tolkien STILL isn’t satisfied, head on over to Colbert Nation to watch this week’s line up of episodes from The Colbert Report, where Stephen Colbert interviews Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, & Peter Jackson (among others) and generally nerds out about The Hobbit.

That’s all I’ve got for now. As my feverish excitement intensifies I may be back to post more links. If not, I’ll see you all at the theatre on Friday, December 14th!

EH