'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' Starts 2015 Off With a First Place Finish

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies- $21.9M/$220M
I've yet to fully understand the decision to split the one book of 'The Hobbit' into three movies..how am I kidding, of course I do....money. Personally I think it was a mistake and it shows. It's easy for us to sit in our suburban homes criticizing the sell-outs of Hollywood but let's be honest. If you have a property that you can stretch in to three 9 figure paydays as opposed to one are you really going to take the artistic route? Didn't think so.

2. Into the Woods- $19M/$91M
The silver screen adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical was all the rage amongst it's audience. Wondering if your in that audience? Do you have Once Upon a Time DVR'd? You're in that audience. Personally I found the film to be a bit more than a let down but it would appear that enough of you disagreed to keep it in the #2 spot.

3. Unbroken- $18.3M/$87.8M
The film's mantra of "If you make it, you can take it" must have wiggled into the real world as Angelina Jolie's story of an Olympic champion turned Japanese POW wills itself into the number three spot in it's second week of release.

4. The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death- $15.1M
The follow up to Daniel Radcliffe's first post-Potter outing failed to make a huge splash but at $15 million it's definitely a respectable take for a lower budget horror movie in the black hole that is early January.

5. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb- $14.4M/$89.7M
When you consider this is the fourth entry in the series and Ben Stiller is about 6 years past time as a "Hot" hollywood actor the $89.7M total take over three weeks is definitely respectable but given the ensamble (most of which are also past their Hollywood expiration date) and the lack of family friendly competition, it's not all that surprising. I'm just thankful that Robin Williams has another film coming out...I'd hate to see him go the way of Raul Julia who's final film was Street Fighter.

6. Annie $11.4M/$72.6M
Really? Annie hasn't broken the $100M mark after three weeks? I have to be honest this is one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. A time honored film updated with the adorable and talented Quvenzhané Wallis and it doesn't blow the Christmas competition away? I mean, come on!

7. The Imitation Game $8.1M/$30.8

8. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1- $7.7M/$323.8M
Seven weeks later and Katniss Everdeen still holds a place in the top 10. I think it's safe to say that fandom for The Hunger Games isn't waning.

9. The Gambler- $6.3M/$27.5M
No records are being broken but Mark Whalbergs gamble on this oscar bait movie have paid off as it passes it's budget of $25 million this week. Whalburgers all around!

10. Big Hero 6- $4.8M/$211
Disney does it again as Baymax and company break back into the top ten showing the greatest staying power of the list with 9 total weeks in theaters, and a well deserved stay it is!

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Stephen Colbert set for cameo in 'The Hobbit' trilogy

"Peter Jackson invited me to the set last year. I flew out and watched them shoot some scenes and went to some locations. I saw a 25-minute cut, and it was amazing. Jackson knows I'm a big fan of the films."  

After making those statements in the November issue of Playboy, Comedy Central's faux conservative Stephen Colbert was asked if he was actually in The Hobbit, sparking an immediate Internet buzz when he responded with "Could be."  Now a source at THR has confirmed Colbert will have a role in The Hobbit trilogy, either in The Desolation of Smaug or the final chapter, There and Back Again.

Exactly what that role will be or how big is anybody's guess. We don't even know if he'll be recognizable or if he'll be in a throng of orcs or something. While I'm sure Colbert fans are probably ecstatic over this, I can't help thinking he'd be more of a distraction than anything else. Seeing him could immediately take us out of the moment, and I seriously doubt Jackson would want that to happen. So my best guess is that Colbert will be very tough to spot, and probably won't have much to say.

Whatever the case, expect clowns like Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity to say this is some sort of liberal plot to portray conservatives as violent cave trolls or something.

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'The Hobbit' trilogy ends on July 28th 2014; 2nd film gets retitled

Now that Peter Jackson has officially turned his The Hobbit series into a trilogy, he's doing all of his fans of the Shire a major solid by not forcing them to wait an extra year to see the whole thing wrap up. It's now been confirmed that the final leg of the trilogy will be released on July 28th 2014, under the title of The Hobbit: There and Back Again.  Confused? Well, don't be.

Obviously, with the addition of a new film the middle chapter no longer makes sense to hold that title, since the adventure's far from over. Instead, the second film has now been retitled The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and retains the December 13th 2013 release date. The first film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hasn't been affected and will open this year on December 14th. It should be noted that the title change was expected due to the domain name being registered late in July.

So what's the deal with the shortened gap in-between the final two movies? Dan Fellman of Warner Bros. reveals their motivations...

“We wanted to have a shorter gap between the second and third films of The Hobbit Trilogy. Opening in July affords us not only the perfect summer tentpole, but fans will have less time to wait for the finale of this epic adventure.”

Hard to argue his point. This would be the first of any the Lord of the Rings movies to open during the summer season, as all previous have come out during the December months. So it'll be interesting to see how it fares against other blockbuster competition, rather than late season dramas. Plus, with the previous two movies already in the can, Jackson has more time to prepare before filming begins next summer, so he may not need the extra year's worth of time to get the movie ready and into theaters.

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Sure Shots: Malin Akerman; Ryan Reynolds; 'The Hobbit'

* Ok, it's really time to start paying attention to Breacher, and stop dissing it just because it's a David Ayer-joint. Already with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, Joe Manganiello, Terrence Howard, and Dawn Olivieri, the cop thriller is now about to add the sexy Malin Akerman to the cast. Akerman has been steadily improving over the last couple years, hitting a new high in last year's happythankyoumoreplease, and making for a charming addition to Rock of Ages. Akerman will play a member of the DEA task force who rob a drug cartel for millions, only to get picked off one-by-one once they think things have quieted down. [Variety]

* Remember Ryan Reynolds? Hey, he's not dead yet(although his 2011 nearly finished him), and he's still someone directors seem to be keen on working with. He's got the undead cop flick, R.I.P.D coming up, and now he's set to join Atom Egoyan's next film, Queen of the Night. Reynolds will play the father whose daughter is kidnapped eight years prior. Now a series of clues point to her possibly being alive, and...well, that's the mystery, I suppose. Egoyan wrote the script along with David Fraser, with production set to begin in February. Just another thing to stand in the way of that Deadpool flick, which I'm gonna say will never happen. At least not in the form we've come to expect. Egoyan is currently shooting his West Memphis Three film, Devil's Knot.

* Back before all this trilogy stuff, the big deal surrounding The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was that Peter Jackson shot the film with a frame rate of 48fps. Revealing a few bits of footage a few months ago at Cinemacon, the response to it was...."meh". So maybe that's why Warner Brothers has made the decision to only release the 48fps version of the film on a limited basis, only hitting a small number of theaters. Honestly, most theater chains aren't equipped for it, anyway, and most people don't give a crap one way or another about frame rate. The film hits theaters on December 13th, so we should expect a list of participating theaters soon. [Variety]

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New dwarven trailer for 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'

The newest trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey isn't really all that new. Warner Brothers actually debuted it ahead of Pixar's Brave, but since there are only a few small changes from the previous trailer, they decided to hold it until now. The differences are small, but fans eagerly awaiting the first part of Peter Jackson's newly planned trilogy will appreciate the additional footage.

While still a bit downbeat, the new trailer gives us some additional looks at the 13 dwarfs who will be accompanying Bilbo Baggins(Martin Freeman) on his journey to defeat the dragon, Smaug. The introduction of his companions is one of the few cheery moments, capped off by the dour dwarf leader, Thorin Oakenshield(Richard Armitage). We also get a couple of new scenes involving Bilbo and Gandalf(Ian McKellen), including one with them sprinting through the forest.

The big question remaining for The Hobbit is whether Jackson is going to be able to expand J.R.R. Tolkien's story enough to make three movies out of. The original novel is fairly light-hearted and simple, designed mostly for children, so there were doubts of it even being a sequel. Even with Jackson having access to additional Tolkien materials, a third film seems like a hard nut to crack.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits theaters on December 14th, followed a year later by The Hobbit: There and Back Again on December 13th. Then the final chapter, The Hobbit: Third Breakfast or whatever it will be called opens in the summer of 2014. Check out the new trailer below...

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'The Hobbit' officially a trilogy; third part hits summer 2014

Well, the writing was on the wall, wasn't it? During Comic-Con word started to leak out that Peter Jackson was angling to do more shooting on The Hobbit. Talks started to get serious between Jackson and Warner Brothers last week, and now today it's been made official. To Jackson's Facebook page we go...


It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made. Recently Fran, Phil and I did just this when we watched for the first time an early cut of the first movie - and a large chunk of the second. We were really pleased with the way the story was coming together, in particular, the strength of the characters and the cast who have brought them to life. All of which gave rise to a simple question: do we take this chance to tell more of the tale? And the answer from our perspective as the filmmakers, and as fans, was an unreserved ‘yes.'

We know how much of the story of Bilbo Baggins, the Wizard Gandalf, the Dwarves of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the Battle of Dol Guldur will remain untold if we do not take this chance. The richness of the story of The Hobbit, as well as some of the related material in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, allows us to tell the full story of the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and the part he played in the sometimes dangerous, but at all times exciting, history of Middle-earth.

So, without further ado and on behalf of New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wingnut Films, and the entire cast and crew of “The Hobbit” films, I’d like to announce that two films will become three.

It has been an unexpected journey indeed, and in the words of Professor Tolkien himself, "a tale that grew in the telling."

As we previously learned, Jackson has the rights to about 125 pages of J.R.R. Tolkien's writings that expand on the world of The Hobbit, and flesh out some of the story's major gaps. The likely plan of action has about 2 months of filming to take place in New Zealand next summer, with a release to follow a year later. That would mean we'd be getting a new Hobbit film for three straight years.

Slashfilm is suggesting the subtitle could be The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug or The Hobbit: Riddles in the Dark based on some recent domain name registrations, but nothing is confirmed right now. I've yet to get properly excited about The Hobbit, and while my enthusiasm is bound to creep up over the next few months, this announcement doesn't do much for me. I continue to be wary of all the padding out Jackson needs to do to make two films out of The Hobbit, and now expanding it to three is even more reason for concern. Now comes the process of signing the cast for an additional movie, which I'm guessing they won't do without a significant pay hike.






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Talks for 'The Hobbit' to become a trilogy turn serious

If you thought for a second that Peter Jackson was above going the same route as Twilight, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games by inflating The Hobbit into a trilogy, well think again. After the first inklings popped up at Comic-Con that Jackson was considering shooting some additional footage, THR is now reporting talks with Warner Brothers have now taken a serious turn. Oh yay.

Jackson had been looking at adapting some of the other stories J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that helped flesh out some of The Hobbit's remaining mysteries, and if all falls into place he'll be embarking on a two-month shoot next summer in New Zealand. Jackson, Warner Brothers, producer/writer Philippa Boyens, and producer Fran Walsh are currently working out the logistics, and considering the film would no doubt be a monster hit, expect details to get worked out pretty quickly.

It's obvious why the studio wants to do it, and as much as I hate the idea of such a clear money grab, Jackson's deep love of Tolkien's works is driving this move. It wouldn't be surprising to me if he continued on even after this new trilogy is complete as there's no shortage of material to work with. The only thing they would need to do is lock up the actors to new deals and secure financing, which probably won't be that difficult.  They'll have to get the ball rolling soon if they plan on hitting the summer start date, though.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens on December 14th, followed next year by The Hobbit: There and Back Again on December 13th. Even after the Comic-Con footage, I'm still not that excited, but what about you? Are you hyped for a potential third movie?

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Comic-Con News: More Hobbit? Peter Jackson on filming additional footage

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is a great book, but it's my least favorite of them all. Primarily because it was written to be for children, essentially, which is why so much of it is kept in the background or overly simplified. For instance, Gandalf disappears for big chunks of the story, and his adventures at the time are chronicled elsewhere. In pulling together The Hobbit, Peter Jackson took from a number of different Tolkien stories to help flesh it out. But there's so much more that Tolkien wrote that Jackson can play around with, and no way to fit it all in to just two The Hobbit movies.

Does that mean we'll see a third film? A trilogy like every other franchise has been doing lately? Maybe, maybe not. Yesterday at the WB panel, Jackson seemed reluctant to say that there would be a third film. But at the press conference with reporters, he did talk about wanting to shoot additional scenes, taken from another of Tolkien's works...

Jackson: "It's very premature. I mean we have an incredible source material with the appendices because 'The Hobbit' is obviously a novel but we also have the rights to use this 125 pages of additional notes where Tolkien expanded the world of 'The Hobbit' published at the end of 'Return of the King' and we've used some of it so far and just in the last few weeks as we've been wrapping up the shooting and thinking about the shape of the story, Fran and I have been talking to the studio about other things we haven't been able to shoot and seeing if we persuade them to do a few more weeks of shooting, probably more than a few weeks actually, next year. And what form that would actually end up taking, well the discussions are pretty early. So there isn't really anything to report but there's other parts of the story that we'd like to tell that we haven't been able to tell yet.

"We've used more source material than 'The Hobbit.' For instance in 'The Hobbit' when Gandalf mysteriously disappears for chapters, it was never really explained where he's gone. Much later Tolkien filled in those details. In these appendices he did talk about what happened. And it was all together a lot darker and more serious than what is written in 'The Hobbit'. And also to be honest I want to make a series of movies that run together so if any crazy lunatic wants to watch them all in a row there will be a consistency to it, a consistency of tone.

"So I don't want to make a children's story to go into 'The Lord of the Rings' so we are providing a balance. I mean a lot of the comedy and the charm comes from the characters. You're dealing with Bilbo Baggins who is a bit more reluctant to go on an adventure than Frodo was and with Dwarves who have a personality and camaraderie all of their own, so there's a lot of humor but there are still some serious themes involved."

I like that he's aiming to keep The Hobbit a bit more mature like The Lord of the Rings was, and to be honest, the idea of seeing a third film is one I can get behind. This weekend has done a pretty good job of getting me more excited for The Hobbit than I have over the last few months, and likely when November rolls around I'll be in a full on froth about it. There's a part of me that thinks if he does shoot any additional footage, it may just end up on some super stuffed Blu-Ray set, and not necessarily amounting to another movie.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens on December 14th.



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It's a feast in the latest image from 'The Hobbit'

Truth be told, a lot of the images we've seen from The Hobbit have been hella boring. But y'know, it was the same with The Lord of the Rings. All the good stuff was saved for the film, and I hope that's the case here. Having read the book long ago, I know there's a lot of dead space in the story, and it looks like Peter Jackson is content giving us a taste of that rather than what he knows we want, like shots of Smaug the dragon.

The latest single image features Bilbo Baggins(Martin Freeman) looking rather confused while amongst a group of hungry dwarves, one of whom has food on his head. Not sure why. This is probably from the earliest parts of the film, before Bilbo, Thorin Oakenshield, and the rest of the crew head to reclaim the dwarves lost kingdom. 

On a positive note, the more images we get, the closer we are to the film's December 14th release date.

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Has Peter Jackson reworked the ending of 'The Hobbit'? Benedict Cumberbatch spills the beans

Benedict Cumberbatch(there's that funny name again!) has been everywhere lately, and for damn good reason. He's a hell of an actor, capable of playing Sherlock Holmes and holding his own in the heavyweight cast of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He even turns up in War Horse in one of the film's many wasted roles. More than that, he was just named the villain in JJ Abrams' Star Trek sequel, which is actually the lesser of the two major franchises he finds himself a part of.

The main one is The Hobbit, which has him voicing and doing motion capture for the roles of the dragon Smaug and The Necromancer.  While talking to Empire about Sherlock, they asked about Peter Jackson's upcoming two-part epic, Cumberbatch appears to have let slip a nugget that hints of some serious changes to the film's conclusion....

Cumberbatch: "I’m playing Smaug through motion-capture and voicing the Necromancer, which is a character in the Five Legions War or something which I’m meant to understand. He’s not actually in the original Hobbit. It’s something [Peter Jackson]’s taken from Lord Of The Rings that he wants to put in there."

In Tolkien's book, The Necromancer never turns up in the Battle of Five Armies. Gandalf and a team of wizards(which included Saruman, I believe) take him out early on, but it's done in the background and doesn't factor into the story in any meaningful way. It appears that what Jackson is doing is having him be the leader of the Goblin and Warg army that battles the dwarves and humans in the climactic battle.


It makes sense, as one of the most irritating aspects of The Hobbit is how Gandalf disappears for a good portion of the book. This should rectify that to some degree, and provide the story a more consistent nemesis for Bilbo and his companions to fight against. I know some traditionalists will be peeved, but it was a smart move.

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New image of Martin Freeman as Bilbo in The Hobbit; trailer to premier tomorrow

I've been thankful for the slow down in Hobbit-related information the last couple of weeks, because for awhile there Peter Jackson was simply overwhelming us. It's all just in preparation for the premier of the first trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which will premier online tomorrow night at 10pm eastern/7pm pacific. It will also be attached to showings of The Adventures of Tintin the following day.

The January issue of Empire also features an image of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins. It's Bilbo's epic quest to reclaim the dwarf kingdom of Erebor by defeating the dragon Smaug that is the catalyst for everything we've come to know in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will open next year on December 14th 2012. The final chapter, The Hobbit: There and Back Again opens a year later on December 13th.

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When will you see trailers for The Dark Knight Rises and The Hobbit?

Just last week, Gollum....er, Andy Serkis, said that he thought we'd be seeing a trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, sometime around Christmas. Makes sense, with the film almost exactly one year away, it's the perfect time to start whetting our appetites for the long awaited prequels to The Lord of the Rings. In the meantime, earlier this month we got an early word that a 2nd trailer for The Dark Knight Rises would premier in front of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Now according to Jeff Sneider at Variety, we'll be getting both trailers ahead of the Robert Downey Jr. detective flick...




I was thinking we'd see The Hobbit ahead of Peter Jackson's The Adventures of Tintin, but this makes just as much sense. If you had any doubts about seeing the Sherlock Holmes sequel, I hope this makes your decision a bit easier.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will open next year on December 14th.

The Dark Knight Rises opens on July 20th.

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