NEWS/ The Hobbit Wraps! Peter Jackson Shares Memories—and Pics—of Last Day of Shooting

NEWS/ The Hobbit Wraps! Peter Jackson Shares Memories—and Pics—of Last Day of Shooting

One shoot to rule them all—and in the darkness bind them. Filming on the final installment of The Hobbit trilogy wrapped last Friday and somehow, during a whirlwind 20-hour workday, Peter Jackson managed to find the time to blog about the experience to his ever-devoted fans. "Ever since starting these blogs, there's been something I thought I'd like to try one day (as well as answering the other 19 questions I owe you!)—blogging throughout a shoot day in real time. Try to give you all a feeling for what we deal with on an average day," the filmmaker wrote on the movie's Facebook page along with posting photos to commemorate the occasion. NEWS: The Desolation of Smaug poster is out The Hobbit, Behind the Scenes The Hobbit/Facebook Waking at 6:30 a.m. and after being greeted upon leaving his home by his cat, Mr. Smudge, Jackson arrived at his Wellington studios two hours later. There, he and his crew set about finishing up shooting some complicated fight scenes featuring his band of dwarves for There and Back Again, the third and final chapter in the film series. Only instead of the normal 11-hour workday, Friday being the final day, Jackson hinted they might run late. "Whenever we work a long day, I joke with the crew that I'm just softening them up for when Jim Cameron shows up in Wellington to shoot Avatar 2 and 3. Well ... It's not really a joke," quipped the Oscar winner. Jackson then took fanboys through a typically busy day on The Hobbit set. NEWS: Peter Jackson previews The Desolation of Smaug in an online Q&A The Hobbit, Behind the Scenes The Hobbit/Facebook Not only did he oversee the main film unit, but he had a second "splinter unit" off shooting some green screen featuring Dwalin, the dwarf played by Graham McTavish. Jackson also revealed the production was a bit behind schedule, forced to complete shots leftover from Thursday before they could work on what was scheduled, as well as shuttle between soundstages. But as Tolkienites can attest, he's got a knack for making up for lost time. Not only did the Kiwi auteur supervise a slew of shots, but during breaks in between, he conducted a spotting session with composer Howard Shore, giving input regarding edited footage the latter was scoring from New York. Jackson also confessed to being extremely excited about the musical score for the second film, The Desolation of Smaug, mostly because Shore can write entirely new sections without having to revisit parts of the score for The Lord of the Rings. Those include sequences involving Beorn, Mirkwood, the Woodland Realm, Laketown, Bard and Smaug, he said. NEWS: Peter Jackson defends making The Hobbit a trilogy The Hobbit, Behind the Scenes The Hobbit/Facebook Among some of the more memorable photos he posted from the final day of production: actor Richard Armitage, who plays Dwarven leader Thorin Oakenshield, posing along with his two stand-ins of different sizes; Jackson mugging for the camera with Kili (Aidan Turner) and Fili (Dean O'Gorman) respectively; Jackson giving a final farewell to McTavish who just completed his final shot; and a close up of Armitage. Production finally wrapped at around 10:30 p.m. and Jackson was home by 1 a.m. where a special surprise awaited him. NEWS: Take a look back at some of the early reviews of The Hobbit The Hobbit, Behind the Scenes The Hobbit/Facebook "A 20 hour day…15 years of Tolkien…771 days of shooting…And we arrive home exhausted, to a house full of teenagers!" Jackson wrote. "It's going to be a long night!" Time to break out the pipeweed. The Desolation of Smaug hits theaters on Dec. 13, 2013 while There And Back Again is scheduled for release Dec. 17, 2014.




news sours  www.eonline.com

Star Trek Into Darkness $84 Million Box Office Debut Misses Estimates

tar Trek Into Darkness $84 Million Box Office Debut Misses Estimates

Paramount Pictures' highly anticipated Star Trek Into Darkness arrived at the North American box office this past weekend with Captain James Kirk and crew beaming up a solid but unexceptional $84 million during the3 film's four days of release. The arrival of J.J. Abrams' latest Trek adventure pushed previous two-time champ Iron Man 3 and Warner's The Great Gatsby down a notch on the list, yet each continued to rake in the big bucks. Star Trek Into Darkness was projected to have a bigger opening, especially with the inclusion of IMAX and 3D screens. I've published a more in-depth analysis of Trek's debut here. Additionally, the Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD versions of Star Trek Into Darkness are already available for pre-order. The return of Kirk and Spock did knock Iron Man 3 down but far from out. Marvel's first Cinematic Phase 2 flick zipped by the $300 million (domestic) and one billion (global) marks on Thursday and added another $35.2 million to its North American fortunes this weekend. Foreign markets added another $40 million. The domestic total now stands at a towering $337 million with the $400 million milestone within its sights. The film has moved up to the number 25 position on the all-time highest domestic grossers and number nine globally. Third place went to Warner's smash hit The Great Gatsby, which has now become the studio's highest-grossing film of 2013. The Baz Luhurmann version of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel has successfully worked as counter-programming to the visual effects blockbusters and should continue to do so as it faces little competition over the next few weeks. The film dropped an understandable 51% from its huge opening to earn an estimated $25 million on 3,550 screens in its sophomore round. The Leonardo DiCaprio headliner has earned a great $91.2 million and could wind up with $130 million in domestic sales by the end of its run. Rounding out the top five were Paramount's Pain & Gain and Fox/Dreamworks' The Croods. The Michael Bay-directed feature dropped 38% from last weekend to earn an estimated $3.1 million to bring its four week total to $46.5 million. The prehistoric 3D animated smash lost a mere 23% of its audience from week eight to earn $2.75 million. To date The Croods has earned a great $176.7 million. The remainder of the top ten is as follows: 6. 42 (Warner Brothers) $2.73 million (-40%); $88.7 million 7. Oblivion (Universal) $2.2 million (-46%); $85.5 million 8. Mud (Roadside Attractions) $2.2 million (-13%); $11 million 9. Peeples (Lionsgate) $2.1 million (-53%); $7.8 million 10. The Big Wedding (Lionsgate) $1.1 million (-54%); $20.1 million Next weekend sees the arrival of Warner's The Hangover Part III on Thursday, along with Fox's animated Epic and Universal's Fast and Furious 6 on Friday to take advantage of Memorial Day weekend. Fast 6 should have no problem putting the pedal to the box office metal in swiping the pole position away from current champ Star Trek Into Darkness.


news sours     www.thehdroom.com

'Star Trek Into Darkness' director J.J. Abrams has become the most powerful geek in Hollywood Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/director-abrams-powerful-geek-hollywood-article-1.1340799#ixzz2TAMSDwwP

'Star Trek Into Darkness' director J.J. Abrams has become the most powerful geek in Hollywood  

If J.J. Abrams ever develops a working time machine — which, given his career trajectory, may not be impossible — he could tell his 10-year-old self that he’ll grow up to both command the Enterprise and be in charge of the Skywalker family. “No, I never sat in the captain’s chair on the set,” Abrams, 46, joked to the Daily News after the London premiere of his latest directorial effort, “Star Trek Into Darkness,” which opens here Friday. “I let Chris Pine do that.” ZADE ROSENTHAL J.J. Abrams is director of "Star Trek Into Darkness," which is set to open Friday. His next enterprise? Helming 'Star Wars Episode VII," set for release in 2015. Still, the boy who used to run around with a Super 8 camera has grown up to be the most powerful geek in Hollywood. (Even as a kid, there were signs: In 1981, Steven Spielberg hired the 14-year-old Abrams to transfer Spielberg’s own 8mm childhood movies to video after Abrams won a contest.) As an adult, the New York-born Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions has filled the small screen with hits including “Alias,” “Lost,” “Fringe,” “Person of Interest” and “Revolution.” A new show, “Believe,” was just green-lit by NBC. But “Star Trek Into Darkness,” the sequel to the Abrams-directed 2009 reboot that beamed up $385 million worldwide and resuscitated a flagging franchise, is where the heat is now. ZADE ROSENTHAL Abrams and Chris Pine on the set of "Star Trek Into Darkness." RELATED: ACTRESSES STEP UP IN 'STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS' The success of its predecessor got Abrams the reins of “Star Wars Episode VII,” which is currently in preproduction for a 2015 release. To put it in perspective for those who don’t speak Klingon: Abrams is doing the geek equivalent of playing guitar for both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. ZADE ROSENTHAL/ZADE ROSENTHAL Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana and Zachary Quinto star in "Star Trek Into Darkness." “The only overlap I can see between the two is, they’re both bigger than any of us,” says Abrams. “They are both these big entities that people care desperately about. “But I don’t think there’s quite a ‘one versus the other’ war, like Coke and Pepsi. There’s room for both — and I would hope there’s room for me.” It may seem incredulous now, but it wasn’t that long ago that many “Trekkers” were getting into a Vulcan nerve pinch over the hiring of Abrams, who’d once proclaimed himself more of a “Star Wars” guy. AP/20TH CENTURY-FOX FILM CORPORATION Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill in "Star Wars." Now, most don’t want him to leave their corner of the universe. RELATED: 5 BEAUTIES WHO'VE MADE 'STAR TREK' SO BELOVED How did Abrams land these two prime gigs? For one thing, he put together a trusted team — producer Bryan Burk and screenwriters Damon Lindelof (who co-created “Lost” with Abrams), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman — to help steer the Enterprise. ERIC CHARBONNEAU/WIREIMAGE Abrams with Tom Cruise at L.A. premiere of 'Valkyrie' in 2008. Orci’s role, he says, was to make sure “Trek” didn’t set a course too far into the mainstream. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/director-abrams-powerful-geek-hollywood-article-1.1340799#ixzz2TAMhaDAQ


news spurs    www.nydailynews.com