Safety in the Skies for The HOBBIT

 As the official airline of Middle-earth, Air New Zealand has gone all out to celebrate the third and final film in The Hobbit Trilogy - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Starring Elijah Wood and Sir Peter Jackson; we're thrilled to unveil..

The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made

Special cameos by Sylvester McCoy, Dean O’Gorman and Weta Workshop co-founder Sir Richard Taylor. Directed by Taika Waititi. Enjoy!

Billy Boyd's Closing Song for Last HOBBIT movie

A Snippet Of Billy Boyd’s Closing Song For 

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES!

Actor Billy Boyd, who plays ‘Pippin’ in Peter Jackson’s on-screen Tolkienverse, will perform the closing song for the upcoming THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES.

A sample of that tune was recently issued, and can be heard via the embed below.  Boyd co-wrote the song with longtime Jackson collaborators (LOTR/HOBBIT scripters/producers) Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.  

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES will release December 17; its score will release a few days earlier.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Trailer

The Hobbit: 

The Battle of the Five Armies

From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” the third in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” brings to an epic conclusion the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield and the Company of Dwarves. Having reclaimed their homeland from the Dragon Smaug, the Company has unwittingly unleashed a deadly force into the world. Enraged, Smaug rains his fiery wrath down upon the defenseless men, women and children of Lake-town.

Obsessed above all else with his reclaimed treasure, Thorin sacrifices friendship and honor to hoard it as Bilbo’s frantic attempts to make him see reason drive the Hobbit towards a desperate and dangerous choice. But there are even greater dangers ahead. Unseen by any but the Wizard Gandalf, the great enemy Sauron has sent forth legions of Orcs in a stealth attack upon the Lonely Mountain.

As darkness converges on their escalating conflict, the races of Dwarves, Elves and Men must decide – unite or be destroyed. Bilbo finds himself fighting for his life and the lives of his friends in the epic Battle of the Five Armies, as the future of Middle-earth hangs in the balance.

Concerning Dragons

Look toward the skies...

Watch this intriguing animated short, Concerning Dragons, with a brief history lesson on the evolution of deadly dragons. Directed by Kieran Duncan with a stylish paper-craft chic as an MSc Animation project in conjunction with Axis Animation, it was created to act as a companion piece to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. This soaring short chronicling the birth and ascension of dragons winging their way around Middle-earth took 13 weeks to complete. Learn how, gifted with intelligence, cunning and wrath, they evolved from noble eagles, seduced and corrupted by the evil sorcery of Morgoth in the First Age, leading to the indomitable reign of Smaug. Watch the skies ...

Here's our first full look of The Hobbit's Smaug

We finally have our first, full look at the namesake dragon in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug — though it’s not exactly what we expected. The trailers and footage shown off so far have done a good job of keeping the look of the beast, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, under wraps. But thanks to a new cross-promotion with Air New Zealand, the veil of secrecy has been lifted. To help promote the trilogy (which was filmed in New Zealand), the airline is painting a massive version of Smaug of the side of an airplane — and it’s freaking awesome. Yeah, that’s right: When you see this airplane flying, it’ll literally have a dragon wrapped around it. In addition to the pic above, the airline has also released a nifty time-lapse video showing just how much work it took to get that badass dragon up there, and it’s amazing the effort involved to make this happen.

New Pics As We Return to Middle-Earth

[Source: blastr.com] The new images from Peter Jackson’s upcoming second installment in his Hobbit trilogy feature the return of our brave little hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), the company of dwarves’ fearless leader Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), Gandalf the Grey (Sir Ian McKellen), Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy) and one of Desolation of Smaug's new characters, Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans).

We also get a sort of cool little sneak peek at the moment just prior the iconic escape-in-a-barrel scene we’ve already glimpsed in plenty of trailers already.

Following last year’s An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug sees Bilbo seeking to recover the dwarves’ gold beneath Erebor (aka the Lonely Mountain) from that pesky dragon Smaug (voiced and mocapped by Benedict Cumberbatch).

Lee Pace, Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly also star, respectively as the Elvenking of Mirkwood forest Thranduil, his son Legolas and new elf character Tauriel.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opens in theaters on Dec. 13, 2013.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Trailer

The second in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" continues the adventure of the title character Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) as he journeys with the Wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and thirteen 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

Official Trailer

• The Dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf have successfully escaped the Misty Mountains, and Bilbo has gained the One Ring. They all continue their journey to get their gold back from the Dragon, Smaug.

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In theaters December 13, 2013

First Look at THE HOBBIT's Smaug the Dragon

SMAUG!!!

"Who goes there?"

• Here's a massive statue erected inside a well-known theater lobby in Wellington, New Zealand that appears to be the dastardly destroyer himself.
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• It's a beautiful piece of studio art and hints pretty hard at it being the infamous lizard we'll meet more intimately in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. This hallowed hallway at the Roxy Theater is normally reserved for the statue placement of characters from Peter Jackson films like TinTin, Gandalf and Gollum.  Voiced by Star Trek Into Darkness baddie Benedict Cumberbatch, the ferocious Smaug is one of most iconic creations in the Tolkien universe and hotly anticipated in the next installment coming out this Christmas.
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• Take a look but don't stand too close ... dragons do bite.

Making of THE HOBBIT

A Behind-the-Scenes Featurette

Listen to Neil Finn's "Song of the Lonely Mountain"

From THE HOBBIT: 
An Unexpected Journey

Click Here!  The Road Goes Ever On And On...

Hobbit Fan-Film Trailer by School Kids

The students of Tower House School in London (a prep school which, by the way, once educated the likes of Tom Hardy and Robert Pattinson) decided they wanted to take their own journey into Middle-earth, so they got a little money together, made some costumes and crafted a 90-minute adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's tale of a Hobbit, a wizard and 13 dwarves. The film premiered for parents, school staff and the like last week at London's Curzon Renoir Cinema, but you can see one minute of the footage right here.

The Hobbit, San Diego Comic Con 2012

Exclusive movie clips are not included here.