I’ve been waiting for this announcement, and then @KellyDuck sent me a message about a piece she read via Cumberbatchweb. It concerns an article from Total Film:
[click to enlarge]
Will post article link when I get it. (see edit below)
But this means RA is coming back to America!
The only bad news in all of this is Comic Con is sold out.
Edit: I don’t have a link that’s easy to read, but the entire article is up here. And Comic Con is still sold out, but there may be hope. Go here
Are you a working “girl”? Then this blog I’m highlighting below may be of interest. And Katie, the author, is not only a Richard Armitage fan, but she’s smart and savvy and fast becoming one of my favorite bloggers. :D
Life Lessons from a Hobbit and a Dwarf Part 1
Posted on June 3, 2012What on middle earth possessed Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage to audition for The Hobbit?!
Martin Freeman, perhaps a little better known, has some movie experience albeit with smaller roles in Hot Fuzz (hilarious!) and Love Actually. And we mustn’t forget the TV hits The Office and Sherlock (fantastic!).
Richard Armitage’s only other foray into international movie stardom was a brief appearance as a baddie in Captain America.
Leading roles in The Hobbit are a significant step up, CV wise, for both actors.
But clearly both felt they had a chance, even if just a small one, and the ability to do the job. They were both also willing to fail in their quest.
Their example provides us with some valuable life lessons, or more specifically, career lessons.
the rest here
But not for the reasons you may think.
Richard Armitage has managed to impress one of the toughest demographics — fan boys. Okay, it was one guy out of the demographic, but I’m running with it. I have encountered enough fan boys over the years to know how picky they can be. My first encounter taught me. He was into monsters and those monsters had to be just so. The right kind of plastic molded to perfection. He went on to become Ivan Stang. Excuse me that’s Reverend Ivan Stang, founder of the Church of the SubGenius. “Ivan” was going to have things his way. LOL!
So our resident fan boy, Eric Vespe, aka Quint from Ain’t It Cool, gave us his report and saw what so many of us see and rave about. How good it was to hear from someone else — and a hard case to boot:
It’s late in the day and the idea is that this is a suitable place to make camp, but Gandalf wants to push on and seek Elrond’s council at Rivendell.
This scene is all about Thorin and my first real chance at seeing Richard Armitage craft a layered performance with the character. Thorin’s a stubborn dwarf, very much a leader, but is smart enough to heed the council of Gandalf.
He is a man torn in this scene. His deep resentment at the elves (he believes they have betrayed his ancestors by not stepping in when they needed their help) pulls him one way, but his respect for Gandalf pulls him the other.
Sir Ian had to be here for this moment since a full performance was required from both men, so he spent the day as he does most days on this movie: standing on a platform a good 2-3 feet off the ground. Peter was getting mostly medium shots and over the shoulders (or beside the shoulder for the shots from Gandalf to Thorin if you want to be anal about it) so there shouldn’t be any need for digital augmentation here.
Armitage does a great job with Thorin’s inner struggle. The look on his face isn’t someone locked into a decision. Gandalf urges him to seek Elrond’s help, for the good of the quest. Instead of playing it like a stone-faced general, Armitage does weigh his options and mostly in reaction to Gandalf’s words, not in his own dialogue.
Read the rest of the report here
But that’s not all. He saw something that most of us don’t get to see often, Richard Armitage as himself, and I would say this is a glowing report:
https://twitter.com/#!/EricVespe/status/200719955501662209
Feelin’ the love!
Thank you, Eric. :) and if you read this, I have a question. Is fan boy two words or one?
Those firmly in RA Universe know by now Peter Jackson screened 10 minutes of ‘The Hobbit’ at CinemaCon, and it was ill received by a significant number of attendees. The plan by Warner Bros. was to highlight the potential sea change in movie making with the advent of cameras like the Red Epic. What I found completely predictable, and I’m going to be shocked if Sir Peter and Warners didn’t as well, were the stunned reactions of a bunch of theater owners and some journalists who needed something interesting to write. This gathering was not conducive to appreciation of something highly creative and inventive in film making. It was mostly about the bottom line, about consumption and give it to me now.
After the lean years of movie going and fear of not being in the black, I can understand theater owners not being eager to embrace something that requires them to invest lots of money and must in part be an acquired taste for the public. As for most of the journalists, they did not do their homework as per usual and must hear the same things over and over. For those who did do their homework, they knew Peter Jackson had already made it plain how 48fps will look and for ‘The Hobbit’ film will require some additional work on his part. Check out 5:00 to about 6:45 and especially the part about “grading down.”
For now I’m assuming Peter Jackson was not thrown a bit by the reaction at CinemaCon:
Peter Jackson responds to complaints about ‘The Hobbit’ footage — BREAKING
by Anthony Breznican
Peter Jackson says the negative reaction this week over new technology he’s using to shoot The Hobbit won’t hold him back, and he hopes moviegoers will give it a try and judge for themselves.
“Nobody is going to stop,” he said. “This technology is going to keep evolving.”
He hopes critics of the format will change their minds when they see the finished film.
“At first it’s unusual because you’ve never seen a movie like this before. It’s literally a new experience, but you know, that doesn’t last the entire experience of the film; not by any stretch, after 10 minutes or so,” Jackson tells EW. “That’s a different experience than if you see a fast-cutting montage at a technical presentation.”
So what does he say to people who just decide they don’t like the glossy new look of the format he’s using?
“I can’t say anything,” Jackson acknowledges. “Just like I can’t say anything to someone who doesn’t like fish. You can’t explain why fish tastes great and why they should enjoy it.”
Right now, every second of a motion picture is made up of 24 images, or “frames,” but Jackson is shooting his two Hobbit films at 48 frames per second, which he says creates a more lifelike picture and will make 3-D less of a strain on the eyes.
Read the rest here
As for me, I found the Ain’t It Cool write up on ‘The Hobbit’ screening about the most fair assessment, and I’m willing to wait for the finished product.
I’m also glad I finally got to highlight this vlog. It has been the most fascinating to me so far, but in the autumn I had a few things going on to keep me from giving the piece its due. Oh well, I got a chance to begin now and will have more to say on the subject.
Obviously something interesting happened. :D See you on Tuesday.
I’m finally getting ’round to catching up on my reading of TORn and have discovered Larry D. Curtis (aka MrCere) is an embed on the set of ‘The Hobbit.’ Something ugly flickered in the middle of my being. It was a foreign feeling. One I’ve only felt perhaps two or three times in my life, but one I hope never to experience again, or I may not be responsible for my actions.
From the looks of things here, it might seem I’m jealous of MrCere meeting the cast and in particular, you know who. Nope. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to watch him work! I would love to do that — much more than meet him. C’mon what would I say to him or he would say to me that I couldn’t completely predict? I could write that script. Boring.
But to watch him work?! And the rest of the cast? And Peter Jackson?!! That would be something wonderful. A fantasy! Yes, I’ve had others — mainly where I cook and he talks, but this is my ultimate fantasy of an encounter with Richard Armitage, and Larry’s tweet has inflamed my envy:
https://twitter.com/#!/MrLDC/status/192225794565734400
To hell with sports. No, I don’t mean that but mean it for the moment. :D
I would so love to be a fly on the wall. Yes, I can see it. Me up there:
No, higher:
And maybe a little less obvious:
Looking down on all that creativity!
But then I suppose I would actually need to stand on one of these:
Can a fly really hang out on one those?
Or would I need to morph?
Wondering how Larry Curtis feels about now. Fly or Goat?
Dear Larry,
We are awaiting your report(s). Yes, it is a royal we. When you have as many personas (personae?) as I do, you can become royal too.
Signed,
One of Richard’s fans who may become a boom, a boulder or a horse in the near future. ;-)P.S. Of course you rate a fake fan letter. *looks coyly*
Screencaps of Hobbit Set vlog from my stash.
Unlike my fantasy trip to New Zealand, this one I’m taking, and certainly to try to see ‘The Hobbit’ premiere, and perhaps meet some other fans in the tri-state area. I believe the latter would be as much fun as the premiere! And cliche’ as it sounds, I love New York. No clue how many times I’ve been there. SO and I and the kids even lived there part of one summer. That’s when my children fell in love with it too, and now I have two other very compelling reasons to go there and will go whether there is a premiere or not:
One of the darlings is in her first year living there, and the other darling has been there for almost three years. Normally, I would visit them during the summer since the winters can be miserable. But my girls are going out of town for a big chunk of the summer, and besides, they’re also coming home for a visit. So December it will be!
Dear Richard,
Love you, but I’m not sure I would make a trip on your behalf. Something else fairly compelling would have to be thrown in. Somehow I think you would understand this.
Sincerely,
One of your fans who likes to act crazy but who’s startlingly sane when it comes to expenditures. :D
My final FanstRAVaganza recap coming later today.
December is going to be here soon. You think I’m nuts? Try processing that Christmas happened over three months ago. Feels like two weeks to me, and if I wait another two weeks, it will be Thanksgiving. That means I need to start getting ready now for ‘The Hobbit’ premiere. I think The Queen and I are going to try to go to NYC for this, but that’s not what this post is about.
You all know how much I love librarians. They hold a special place in my heart and especially sassy librarians, who I waxed on about here, and I’m going to do it again today. But for a very good cause! Richard Armitage is our fantasy boyfriend, and Meg Wood, the sassy librarian in question, runs a blog about fantasy boyfriends. Meg is busy. She’s a librarian at the University of Washington, runs the Boyfriend of the Week blog, her book/movie review blog, supports various noble causes (no, I’m not being snarky), and has a boyfriend of her own. So I’m putting in my bid now for a piece from her oh, sometime between December 15th and February 3rd, 2013. I’ll even pay for her movie ticket. Maybe I’ll throw in dinner as well if Meg will go on the hook for a boyfriend piece about Richard.
This shouldn’t be too difficult since she’s done it before. But that was six years ago and will be almost seven by ‘The Hobbit’ release. It’s time for another one. And if she’s wondering about other background information (DVDs, video clips, interviews or whatever) on RA to catch her up on the last several years of his career, I’m sure some of us can scratch up something for her. :D
It’s Wednesday evening, and I was going to wait until Friday night to publish. That seemed to fit better with the boyfriend theme. But I’m hoping Meg’s not busy on a Wednesday night.
So what say you, Meg? Dinner and a movie for a comparison of RA against your man?
Timeout from my FanstRAvaganza exploration.
I was followed on Twitter by another movie trailer site. I think they know I’m a sucker for these things. So I went over to watch some and came away with the need to post this.
Who woulda thunk one of the hot topics in entertainment this year would be dwarfs? (Or is that dwarves? Damn that Tolkien!) Not that I have any kind of problem with it or that it’s my first encounter with them — I have been a fan of the Roloffs. But I never imagined so much would be coming at us.
The premiere of “Mirror, Mirror” on Friday:
And supposedly ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ in June:
Of course the best is being saved for last since no dwarf before and probably since will be like this (Thank you, Sir Peter. :D):
But I do wonder why this much emphasis on Snow White? I’m sure the producers of those movies are irritated with each other, and I wonder if Peter Jackson is irritated by this as well or if it helps with ‘The Hobbit.’ Yeah, I think about useless stuff like this when I should be doing some paperwork such as the kind needed to file my taxes. See?! See?! why I get so caught up in this useless pastime?! Who in God’s creation wants to do their taxes?! Yep, that’s what I thought. This is much more soothing.
edit: E.B. Darcy reminded me about ‘Once Upon a Time’, which came out last year, and I think may be part of the reason Snow White is getting so much treatment.
More strolling through FanstRAvaganza.
E.B. Darcy speculates about Thorin’s role. Interesting speculation on where the movie will end, and I second the advice to “Read the book before you see the movie!” Then E.B tries to get us ready for the marketing of Thorin. I’m especially interested in an audiobook (more on that later). Of course all of this has her wondering where it might lead RA’s career.
Grati comes with her Crazy Caption contest, and then a poem about RA from an interesting perspective. Suddenly I’m hungry. ;-)
Angie (aka FedoraLady) takes us through a bit of her odyssey in making fan videos. And instead of the usual interview, the Hot Henchman interviews Lady Writer. :D
Fabo and her friend and fellow RA lover, Zibeline, thoroughly explore the power of the Armitage eyes and lashes, and then Fabo muses about who could play Anne Neville to Richard’s III. I’m starting to get into this RIII thing. LOL!
I’ve really enjoyed going through these posts. One more tagteam blogger tomorrow, and then I move onto the anchor bloggers.
Promo still courtesy of TheOneRing and screencap courtesy of Fabo’s blog.
This is my last post for FanstRAvaganza 3, and as always, I remind you that I’m part of a larger conversation which is found here.
What a week?! Yes, this seems to be a drumbeat in the RA blogsophere. But phew, it’s a great way to express what’s happened, and for those who didn’t make it around to all of the posts this week, I hope you know they are not going away. Christine of CDoart has lovingly preserved easy access to them again this year, and I hope she knows how much we all appreciate it. You can access here.
Thank you to all of the bloggers who participated. You are all lovely, and it would be lovely to meet all of you face to face sometime. We’ll have to plan that.
Others behind the scenes were Judiang, Traxy, Natalie, Mulubinba, bccmee, Fabo, and a special thanks to Servetus for being our coordinator. Lovely job!
From here, it will be interesting to see what RA Blogosphere develops by this time next year, and yes, we’re already talking about F4. LOL! Last year we had a bit of an increase. This year? I’m wondering if it will be the explosion I’ve been anticipating. Whatever happens, so far it’s been a lot of fun, and I hope we all continue to find it rewarding to discuss the subject. Or is that the object? :D
RAFrenzy 
