There and Back Again: Filming begins, finally!

[Jedman67]

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The Hobbit Filming Begins Today
Keep your eyes peeled for short folk and dragons – filming for The Hobbit has begun in Wellington and secret locations around New Zealand.

Actors playing the diminutive hobbits, lanky elves, dwarfs and wizards, including Sir Ian "Gandalf" McKellen, have been spotted around Wellington for months since casting announcements began trickling out.

McKellen blogged last week about his first rehearsals with director Sir Peter Jackson.

Now, on the first day of filming, Jackson has revealed a sneak peek inside the new Bag End, the home of lead hobbit Bilbo Baggins.
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At long last, Sir Peter and his gaggle of dwarves and Hobbit-Extraordinare step into the Shire as the cameras roll on the first of the two "Hobbit" features. To mark the announcement and disprove claims of a hoax, Warner Brothers, Inc, the studio financing and distributing the films (due in 2012 and 2013 respectively) released two photos of director Sir Peter Jackson on the set of Bag-End, the first shows PJ sitting on his directors chair in a pose similar to the famous production photo from ten years ago; pipe included. The other shows him stepping through the door of the famous hobbit-hole, framed by the sunlight streaming behind him. At long last, the Hobbit is finally becoming a movie reality.

[Darrell Lawrence]

Get a smaller version of the image and we'll move it to the News area

[evil_genius_180]

It's about time. I think they've been in pre-production since around the time LOTR: The Return of the King was done, possibly even before that.

FINALLY !

The last I heard, the pruduction was under threat of being shut down due to some greedy union silliness. Even though he left out many chapters from his LOTR films, ( Which I personally have always felt would have been best done as a serial like HBOs " Band of Brothers " ) I loved his film addaption of the books.

I'm wondering if he will try to make movies of any of the other numerouse tales from Middle Earth ? Tolkein wove a rich tappistry of highly detailed work to draw from. More than enough to keep Sir Pete busy for the rest of his career.