Sibley Brian - The Hobbit, the desolation of Smaug: official movie guide

Prologue
MR BAGGINS,
THE UNEXPECTED HOBBIT

J ust three paragraphs into writing The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien, having described Bag End, introduces his readers to the Baggins family who have lived there for time out of mind. He tells us that they were considered respectable because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected but that the tale we are about to read concerns a Baggins who had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected.

That is why, for seventy-five years, people of all ages have found themselves caught up in this tale of an unlikely adventurer. For Peter Jackson, Bilbo is both the key to his latest movie trilogy and the link to his previous series of films, The Lord of the Rings: The Bilbo Baggins that we meet in The Fellowship of the Ring, played wonderfully by Ian Holm, is rather eccentric and is treated with suspicion by the rest of the village. There are rumours of great treasure being tucked away in Bag End and tall tales about his having been to extraordinary places and having seen curious things, all of which earmark him as being decidedly odd and peculiar. So, thats the Bilbo that we see at the beginning of Rings, but at the beginning of The Hobbit he is not like that at all.

As Peter reflects, the Bilbo encountered in the first few pages of Tolkiens book, and in the opening scenes of An Unexpected Journey, is not just a hobbit, but a Baggins, through and through: They are insular, small country village people, says the filmmaker, folk who like their comfort and their food and strongly dislike anything that disrupts their world. As a result, they tend to treat strangers especially wandering Wizards with great suspicion. Young Bilbo Baggins is a very conservative fellow with no intention of ever leaving his house or his beloved Hobbiton in The Shire. So the worst thing that could happen to him I mean the very last thing in the world that he would ever want would be to find himself suddenly whisked off into the middle of a dangerous adventure.

Director Peter Jackson and Martin Freeman consider Bilbos next move.

Things get serious for Bilbo when he enters the spider-filled Mirkwood forest.

But that, of course, is exactly what happens. Which is why the real story of The Hobbit, says Peter, is seeing how Bilbo, now played by Martin Freeman as an innocent, home-loving, safety-conscious hobbit, copes with the twists and turns of that adventure as it unfolds; and, in the process, is fundamentally changed by the experience and begins his transformation into the Bilbo who we meet, sixty years later, in The Lord of the Rings.

But transformations can, sometimes, be slow and painful. At the end of An Unexpected Journey having survived encounters with Trolls, Stone Giants and Goblins, a confrontation with Gollum, an attack by Orcs and Wargs and an airborne rescue by giant Eagles Bilbo gazes across a vast expanse of, as yet, unexplored wilderness towards the Dragon-occupied Lonely Mountain and says, I do believe the worst is behind us.

Martin shows his stunt double how to act when in the grip of a very large spider, as Peter looks on.

However, by that time having more than a hint of what is still to come we know, without a shadow of a doubt, that Mr Baggins could not be more mistaken

The Company of Thorin Oakenshield.

I t is December 2012 and, for the second time in less than a decade, Wellington, New Zealand, is undergoing a major transformation as the city prepares to host the world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Wellington sits at the very heart of New Zealands innovative and thriving film industry, says Mayor Celia Wade-Brown. Its also the city that has been integral in bringing the fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien to life on the big screen. So, for a week around the premiere, Wellington will be known as The Middle of Middle-earth.

Travellers from London and Los Angeles get their first glimpse of the extent to which hobbit-mania is gripping the worlds southernmost capital on arriving at Air New Zealands departure desks, decorated with pictures of hobbit legs and feet as if they were the lower halves of the check-in personnel!

Air New Zealands special Hobbit Boeing 777300 arrives at Wellington airport after a low fly-by over the city.

Then its time to board the airlines Boeing 777300 adorned with giant images of Bilbo, Gandalf and the Dwarves that, at 830 square metres, is the largest ever graphic to be applied to an aircraft. On world premiere day, the plane will fly low over the cheering crowds; but for the actors returning to Wellington for the big day (and fellow premium cabin passengers) its time to settle back, consult their menus shaped like the round green door to Bag End and open their amenity kits containing an eyemask printed with the famous notice from Bilbos gate STRICTLY NO ADMITTANCE Except on party business and a pair of flight-socks with hairy hobbit feet design.

Surprisingly, the screening of the flight-safety video is not received with the usual indifference. On the contrary, the sight of an Elf-eared Air New Zealand air hostess standing at a circular plane door instantly grabs the travellers attention. And this unlikely opening is but a prelude to a witty presentation on the use of seat belts, life jackets and oxygen masks demonstrated by Wizards, hobbits, Dwarves, Elves and Orcs, not to mention Gollum and Peter Jackson. The film doesnt merely capture the imaginations of Air New Zealand passengers, it goes viral on YouTube, delighting millions of fans the world over. At the time of going to press, it has received over 10.5 million views.

Upon arrival, the usually tiresome ordeal of collecting luggage is, on this occasion, decidedly less stressful, since the normally arduous process has been enlivened through the creation of a Hobbit-themed luggage carousel for Wellington Airport. Cases, holdalls and backpacks emerge from Bilbos front door and trundle along past the windows of Bag End, through which can be glimpsed Bilbo and his Dwarf guests.

Visitors at the airport would be greeted by a giant Gollum hunting for fisheses.

For the 2003 premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Weta Workshop created a giant figure of Gollum who could be seen reaching up over the top of the airport building in search of his precious. Nine years later, Weta have built another gigantic Gollum sculpture, only this time suspended inside the lounge and grabbing at a school of passing fisheses.