A Hobbit Will Rise.

Also in this year’s Comic-Con cache, a few posters and the teaser for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. Eh…I dunno. As y’all know, I’ve been a big booster of PJ’s Middle Earth from jump street, and I thought well of the first Hobbit, tho’ the second showed signs of strain.

But this looks tonally off to me — The Hobbit just isn’t Return of the King, and, while I know the Battle of the Five Armies is the bulk of the material remaining to be covered, I’m still going to be depressed if two-thirds of the running time here is Pelennor Fields II: Prequel Boogaloo. Fingers crossed.

The Incident with the Dragon.

Almost that time again: Part the Second of Bilbo Baggins’ Great Adventure gets a trailer in this first look at Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Lots of Legolas and Thranduil (Lee Pace) here, as well as our first looks at Bard (Luke Burns), Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), Beorn (in CGI-form), and even the Great Wyrm, tho’ he does not speak (perhaps because he sounds a mite like…”John Harrison.”)

The Grey Company.

While summer swelters stateside, Peter Jackson and co. are thankfully hard at work on The Hobbit. Here’s the second production diary (and the first, if you missed it.) And some production stills: Above we have Nori (Jed Brophy), Ori (Adam Brown), and Dori (Mark Hadlow), and below we have Oin (John Callen) and Gloin (Peter Hamilton) next to Fili (Dean O’Gorman) and Kili (Aidan Turner). That’s seven dwarves accounted for — six more presumably to follow in short order.

Update: Three more dwarves — or maybe three and a half, depending on how you count Bombur – materialize: Bombur (Stephen Hunter), Bofur (James Nesbitt), and Bifur (William Kircher). Note what appears to be a large chunk of metal embedded in the latter’s forehead.

Update 2: Almost there…Here’s Balin (Ken Stott) and Dwalin (Graham McTavish).

Update 3: And Thorin Oakenshield is here.

Radagast the Seventh.

Five armies, seventh Doctor? The cast for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit fills out further with Sylvester McCoy (Radagast the Brown), Ken Stott (Balin), Mikael Persbrandt (Beorn), Ryan Gage (Drogo Baggins), Jed Brophy (Nori), William Kircher (Bifur), and, back for more, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel. [Earlier casting here.] Very glad to see this moving along.