Hobbit Cast Arriving in Wellington
And a picture just because I love it. :D
Click here for more photos of The Hobbit cast arriving in Wellington for the Premiere.
And more.
Candid photo courtesy of Air New Zealand.
Fasten Your Seat Belts, Richard Armitage Frenzy is Here
We’re kicking into high gear with the world’s introduction to Richard Armitage, and you thought it started when his plane took off from LA. Oh, no, it really started when he landed:
I have never in all my experience as a Richard Armitage fangirl (yes, I’m a girl dammit :D) seen fangirling taken to such extremes, and the euphoria is spreading into all areas.
Our own Janine Pineo being her usual interesting self and actually making me take an interest in gardening! has done a Q&A with Anna about her beloved New Zealand. I wanna go to New Zealand! And I’ll even swear to grow some plants.
‘The Hobbit’ Made Me Do It
How Garden Maine Went to New Zealand and Back Again
• By Janine Pineo •
Back in August, this thought popped into my head: Wouldn’t it be cool to feature plants from New Zealand in The Daily Plant when ‘The Hobbit’ premieres?
Then I went back to picking vegetables or making pickles or whatever bit of garden fun I was doing at the time. Which, if you know your Tolkien, is a fairly Hobbity pastime.
But the idea didn’t fade away. Instead, the little seed that was planted lay dormant for a bit.
It sprouted about the time I met Anna Paton in the land of the Internet, where we were talking about all things Hobbit and many things not.
Anna, you see, is a Kiwi.
Read the rest here.
Wait. I guess that’s supposed only to be about Hobbit excitement. *rolls eyes*
And Heidi, the doubting Thomasina in our midst (see big time skepticism here) has been so overcome by what she’s seeing that she has now recanted her suspicions:
https://twitter.com/lovemrthornton/status/273086788325761024
Meanwhile legions of fans are “love bombing” RA’s charities.
So I’m wondering how Richard Armitage Addiction is affecting others. Like, oh say, buying a Thorin Pez dispenser? Eagle Eyed Editor said she saw one. I don’t think she’s quite worked into a frenzy yet (give her time), so she didn’t buy one, and if you did, I won’t hold it against you if you don’t admit it. LOL! For me the euphoric state has untold effect although this blog should be some clue. But two things make it abundantly clear at the moment: 1) I’m considering gardening, which means something has obliterated my usual enmity with plants. Oh, it’s not that I don’t like to look at them, but we keep our distance from each other. 2) I’m going to NYC in December. I really need to have my head examined on that one.
No, I’m not done.
I’m curious about the strange yet not unnatural acts (when considering the impetus) that you’ve gotten up to since the RA frenzy hit. Okay, you can throw in some unnatural acts too. Just keep it clean. And if you haven’t any yet, hang on. :D
Airport shot courtesy of bccmee’s tumblr. Plane shot courtesy of Air New Zealand.
edit: I stand corrected that the Pez dispenser was Lord of the Rings and not The Hobbit, and now I know the real reason Eagle Eyed Editor did not buy one. ;-)
Richard, International
Ali sent me a note and mentioned a swoon worthy new picture of Richard Armitage. “Aren’t they all?” I thought.
I was wrong. I’ve not seen many like this where he looks like such a guy. I mean just a guy. Did I say just a guy? Someone slap me.
We haven’t really seen a pic like this since Strike Back:
This is from an interview in Spanish magazine Accion, which Ali has up at RichardArmitageNet.Com. My only complaint: we need a bigger copy stat!
Also, don’t miss Richard’s FOUR PAGE interview in French magazine L’Ecran Fantastique. April has a copy here.
If you don’t speak French, no worries, Ali will have up a translation soon!
I’m sure we’re all going to learn a few words in other languages before this is over. :D
And I have a new tag for these kinds of pictures, “arrow worthy”. No, I won’t be drawing any arrows. I leave that to others who are more adept. But the tag is perhaps a suggestion?
edit: I put up a larger format picture. Thanks, Ali!
second edit: Servetus now has a translation of the Accion piece.
Imagine a Gushy Title
Yep, I absolutely loved reading this interview. I’m with family today and can’t really weigh in on this as I want. Just know that I kept grinning while I read and almost said, “Aw!” out loud. :D
Richard Armitage: the warrior dwarf
TOM CARDY
THORIN OAKENSHIELD: Richard Armitage couldn’t imagine watching another actor play this role.With 13 dwarfs in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, audiences are expected by the film trilogy’s end to easily distinguish and recognise each one.
But if there’s one dwarf that will be easy to spot from the moment he appears on screen it will be Thorin Oakenshield, played by British actor Richard Armitage.
One reason is that Thorin is the leader and, going on a glimpse I got of the band of dwarfs on set during filming earlier this year, a heroic risk-taker. I couldn’t help but think that Thorin could be to The Hobbit what Aragorn – played by Viggo Mortensen – was in The Lord of the Rings.
Armitage, 41, laughs. It isn’t the first time he’s performed in The Hobbit. He was cast in a school production but the part wasn’t so heroic. “I was playing an elf. I was running around in circles being an elf in a forest and we had a papier mache dragon and a man off stage with a funny microphone for Gollum.
“So it was pretty much like the movie we’ve just made,” he jokes.
Armitage, who is doing the interview while in New York at the height of Hurricane Sandy – “I haven’t got any power or water but I’ve got a phone line” – is best known to Kiwis for his risk-taking heroic roles in television’s Spooks and Strike Back. He’s done a small number of movies, including a part in Captain America: The First Avenger.
But The Hobbit is likely to have Armitage exposed to the biggest audience of his career. As yet, he hasn’t dwelled much on what life will be like after the first film is released.
But he says he’s optimistic that he won’t be recognised often when out in public, due to the prosthetics and makeup used to transform him into Thorin. “Because 60 per cent of Thorin’s face belongs to Weta [Workshop], I might get away with it. People might recognise my chin.
“I haven’t really thought about it. At the moment I just want people to really enjoy the film and enjoy the character. If that means they want to come up and say, ‘Hi’ then that’s good. They might want to throw tomatoes at me in the street – but fair enough.”
Armitage first heard about The Hobbit after Sir Peter Jackson contacted the actor’s agent. Jackson asked if Armitage could read for the part of Thorin. “I thought, first of all, I’m six foot two [1.8 metres] and Thorin’s an old guy. Maybe they want me to read it for a general audition.
“But then when I read what they’d done with the audition speech I realised that they were looking for something quite different. They needed someone who could play a warrior, who could play a young Thorin and old Thorin and also to bring the idea of somebody who could return to his full potential to become a king. That’s when I sat down with Peter and we talked through the journey and the arc of the character – and then they offered it to me. I had to pick myself up off the floor.”
Due to the long shoot, Armitage says he had to then juggle other acting projects so he could spend a long time in New Zealand. He was determined to do it, even when there were several months when The Hobbit was in limbo due to the machinations involving the studios. “I just couldn’t watch somebody else playing this role that had nearly been mine. I had to play him. I had to do it– and at that point the film wasn’t green lit.
Read the rest here.
It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S., and despite all the bad news in the world, we are blessed and many of us want to share with others. My prayer is to find ways to do just that and in a manner that brings glory to the Almighty.
And thanks to TheQueen for the heads up. :D
PITA is at it Again
PETA or PITA (People Inciting Trouble for Attention) as it’s known in the Frenz household, is up to their usual silliness and media whoring. A tad harsh and unsubstantiated you might say? Oh, I don’t know. It seems the stories from the Associated Press may be unsubstantiated. Of course I couldn’t help wondering about my friend Heidi (a former AP reporter) who swore up and down to me that the AP always gets two reliable sources before running a story. Are you sure about that Heidi? Wait! She’s written a piece about her bafflement over this:
Libeling “The Hobbit” – A Former AP Reporter’s Take
I don’t pursue stories about movies or celebrities, because it’s too close to my personal interests and quite frankly would be a conflict of interest for me to cover.
But this week when a story broke about animals being mistreated on the film set of “The Hobbit,” I raised an eyebrow and put my coffee cup down on the table, a little stunned.
The first part of the problem was that the source for the information was the animal rights group PETA. The second part of the problem was that the news organization that broke the story was where I used to work in the mid- to late-’90s: The Associated Press.
Understand this…
Read the rest here.
And now a little something for Sir Pete:
Dear Sir,
I know you don’t like to come stateside too often. Having looked around at photos and video of New Zealand, I don’t blame you. But your lack of exposure to some of our buffoons (lucky you) may be showing. I’m talking about PETA. Any Yank with half a brain knows they’re a joke, and their media whoring is legendary and would be offensive if it weren’t so funny. Unfortunately, the Associated Press chose to give them credibility. I think I know how that happened.
A writer from “The Onion” infiltrated the AP’s ranks and started making wild accusations. Of course it was all intended to be a harmless joke, but sadly, it went awry. What else to explain the idiocy of running a story that trusts PETA to come with something valid?
Okay, so I don’t know what happened. I’m just making that up. Maybe I should call the AP. They might take me seriously.
Okay, okay, I’m being serious now. Whatever the case with the animals and The Hobbit production, I’m inclined to believe you, and no, it’s not because you have that devastatingly handsome British actor playing Thorin. It’s because you’re not stupid. I’m having a hard time thinking you would have been dumb enough to jeopardize the production for something so easily remedied.
And when I think of how PETA has conducted themselves in the past, well, it’s pretty easy to come down on your side. Earlier this year they cited Sea World as violating the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The allegation hinged on the definition of ‘slave’:
PETA’s attorney Jeffrey Kerr told HuffPost that the animal rights group’s argument was based on the belief that “slavery doesn’t depend upon the species of the slave, any more than it depends upon the race, gender or ethnicity of the slave. SeaWorld’s attempts to deny [orcas] the protection solely based on their species is the same kind of prejudice used to justify any enslavement. And prejudice should not be what determines constitutional rights in this country … Because they can suffer from the prohibitive conduct of being enslaved, the 13th Amendment protection against that conduct should be extended to them.” source
Thankfully, the judge wasn’t an idiot and threw out the suit and thereby kept ‘slave’ from being redefined to something that would have minimized the very real struggle of people who were enslaved.
And now PETA may be trying to redefine ‘died’ since it seems the horses in question are not only alive but according to their owners came to no harm.
So I’m sorry you had to mess with all of this silliness, and I believe, as it is with almost all of PETA’s claims, this too shall go into the annals of their lunacy. Until then, take care.
Sincerely,
A ridiculously sane person, who on the side happens to be a crazy fan of that Brit actorP.S. I was tempted to apprise you of PETA’s hypocrisy, but I think I’ve made my point.
edit: since the people at PETA don’t have enough real issues to pursue, I’ve got one for them. They need to find out what animal had to die so Phil Spector could look insane at his trial:
Is the Pen Mightier Than the Sword?
Janine makes a compelling case and has Mark Atkin‘s back (please note the apostrophe :D)
The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword
Gandalf is looking pretty grim on one of the latest books released prior to the premiere of the long-awaited Hobbit movie, coming very soon to a theater near everyone in the world.
The cover of ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Official Movie Guide’ (my scan)
The cover of ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Official Movie Guide’ (my scan)
Minus his beard, long hair, wrinkles, shape of face, and hair and eye color, I look pretty grim, too. For there is a wrong to be righted. I may alienate some people. I may not make any new friends ever. I may cause mass rioting somewhere on a logging road in the North Woods. But this is something that must be done for all those people who have suffered what I have borne in my life: the grievous error of a misspelled name.
My name looks simple. I mean, it is right in your face up there atop this blog because I couldn’t think of anything better to write. Six letters for the first name, five for the second. Nevertheless, it’s a name that is misspelled by lots of folks. Most can’t even say it. The first time my name was in print in the local newspaper, it wasn’t my name. It was misspelled.
It is likely the only sane explanation for why I became a writer and editor. At a newspaper.
What in the blue blazes have I got to do with this book, you ask.
Read the rest here.
This is a Special Time
A guest post from NZfanofRA:
Frenz has very kindly allowed me to share some thoughts with you. I’ve been thinking about Richard. Nothing unusual about that I hear you say. And you might be correct in your assumption.
But the reason for bursting into print is to invite you, with me, to pause in the giddy anticipation of The Hobbit release, and reflect upon this moment. May I urge you not to simply await the premiere or the screening you plan to attend, but enjoy the cusp of something.
And what might that something be? I’m sure you, like me, expect another wondrous performance from Mr. Armitage in his portrayal of Thorin. We also are certain that the huge audiences for The Hobbit will mean RA will become much, much more well known.
I had expected this sort of recognition would occur after the movie had been released and people had seen the performance. But it seems The Hobbit publicity machine is already promoting RA as a star of the movie in posters and by his inclusion in the team that went to Comic Con in July. This movie isn’t called The Dwarf King, it is The Hobbit, isn’t it?
The Warner Bros. publicity machine however, is not the only sign that people are starting to notice Richard Armitage/Thorin. The Geekest Link sells plush toys of Thorin, Bilbo, Gandalf, the Goblin King and Gollum. But there were reports on Twitter of company representatives noticing Thorin was selling far faster than the others. And now there’s a little pink note on the site suggesting the Thorin plush toy might appeal to Richard Armitage fans – no such mention of the actor playing the other plushy toy characters.
Then there’s the fabulous 3D 5 varieties of cover for Empire magazine’s very special Hobbit edition (highly recommended purchase, by the way). The 5 options are Bilbo, Gandalf, Gollum, Galadriel and Thorin. Guess which one has sold out – take a look.
There’s a groundswell out there, and it’s building. Mainstream media might not have discovered it yet, but I think the signs are there. This marvelous actor has been noticed, is being noticed, and certainly is about to be noticed. Big time.
And here’s a piece of complete speculation on my part. Although I am a Kiwi, I have no insider knowledge of the decisions made about The Hobbit production team, but we know the PJ team keep writing and rewriting as they film. Did the Thorin part become larger once they saw what Richard Armitage was doing with the role? I think so, even if the two films becoming three happened in an organic way, contributed to by the richness of the material and the performances of others in the cast as well.
So to return to my original idea, let’s enjoy what’s happening now, not just await what is coming. As Richard Armitage fans we’re kind of along for the ride. Aren’t we lucky?
Note: My thanks to NZfanofRA for sharing her wonderful encouragement to bask in what is happening and about to happen. She also has an enjoyable guest post about meeting RA which I hope you check out if you haven’t already! Further thoughts from me about the imminent fame are coming in another post.
Thorin in 3-D
Yeah, yeah, it’s been covered, but have you actually seen Richard Armitage, er, I mean Thorin in 3-D? With all the Hobbit links flying around, I just wanted to make sure you got to see at least a small version of the 3-D posters. Click on the photo for a peek.
And really, you haven’t lived until you’ve stood next to the 1-1/2 times life size posters that were at Comic-Con. Phew! His eyes follow as you move around and what eyes they are! But as compelling as they appear, they’re absolutely no comparison to the real thing. :D
“As Performed by Richard Armitage and the Dwarf Cast”
The Hobbit soundtrack is due out December 11th. Will Richard Armitage’s voice be featured? Absolutely. Fandango has an exclusive on the tracklist. But even if Richard Armitage wasn’t a featured artist on this CD, I would still buy it. I adore the music from The Lord of the Rings. Its haunting, majestic quality with a little quirk thrown in is fitting for work inspired by Tolkien.
Two of my favorites, Riders of Rohan and Samwise the Brave (respectively) from Two Towers:
And in case you have been in a hole in the ground :D, an excerpt of the song Richard and Cast will be singing:
A hearty thanks to TheOneRingnet for posting a pointer to the Fandango article. I really, really appreciate all that they do. Perhaps when Ali gets a chance, she can put up a link on her site to the Amazon pre-order page, so that charity can benefit from what you purchase.
A Prelude to ‘The Hobbit’ Deluge or What to Immerse Yourself in First?
note: if all that we’ve been getting on Richard Armitage and The Hobbit this month is any indication, we’re going to drown in November, and what a lovely way to go.
Of course the Empire Magazine article is the first thing to bask in!
But after you’re done with that, where do you go?
Yeah, I have a suggestion. :D
I really enjoyed this interview:
Interview: Richard Armitage Talks “The Hobbit”
By Garth Franklin
With the release of the first “Hobbit” film, Hollywood is finally set to showcase a man that fans of British television have known about for years – Richard Armitage. In fact, the distinguished 41-year-old English thespian has already unwittingly assembled his own rabid fan base of swooning admirers affectionately nicknamed ‘The Armitage Army’.
It’s not hard to see why – with sharp features, a great head of hair, icy blue eyes and other impressive assets, he looks very much a star. He first came to attention with his leading role in the BBC’s 2004 version of “North and South”. He also played Macduff to James McAvoy’s Macbeth in the “ShakespeaRe-Told” limited series, and showed off a warmer side romancing Dawn French in the final episodes of beloved sitcom “The Vicar of Dibley”.
I became aware of Armitage for his leather-clad role of Guy of Gisborne in the BBC’s “Robin Hood,” from which he segued into the role of Lucas North on one of my favorite shows “Spooks” (aka. “MI-5”). Decked out in tattoos (as pictured below) to showcase his character’s seven years imprisoned in a Russian gulag, Armitage was a major cast member from the seventh to the ninth season of the long-running spy thriller. Demonstrating his best James Bond/Jack Bauer style skills before departing in dramatic fashion, he also slipped in a quick cameo on last year’s “Captain America: The First Avenger”.
*snip*
His early apprehension stuck with him during the first month of filming, the actor claiming “I didn’t really unpack my bag for about three weeks, ’cause I thought that I was going to be on the plane going home. But yeah, it’s worked out all right.” He also channeled that nervousness into his performance – “Bag End was the first week of shooting for this character, for me and for the other dwarves as well, and it feels so different. But it was good that it felt awkward. It felt like they were out of place because they are in that environment. Dwarves don’t belong in a cozy, domestic situation. They belong in giant halls and on a battlefield.”
Read the rest here
The comments in this interview are what I absolutely love about Richard Armitage.
When you’re done with that, look at Ali’s list of articles for today (October 25). Wow. Wow. Wow. I am so diggin’ this.
RAFrenzy 
