AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY To Be Peter Jackson's Shortest Trip To Middle-Earth Yet
Considering the fact that Peter Jackson's big screen adaptation of The Hobbit recently became a trilogy, it should perhaps come as no surprise that An Unexpected Journey will be shorted than any of The Lord of the Rings films. Hit the jump to read the director's comments!
We've heard a lot of conflicting reports about exactly how long The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is going to be, but Empire managed to catch up with Peter Jackson himself for an OFFICIAL word on the running time. "It’s looking like it’s going to be about ten minutes shorter than Fellowship was," Jackson told the site. "So it’s going to be officially our shortest Middle Earth yet. I mean, Fellowship was just under three hours and this is about 2 hours 40 minutes at the moment." Seeing as the studio decided to add a third instalment, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that each of them will now be a little shorter. By no means a bad thing for those of you who found the first three to be bum-numbingly long!
The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.
Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever…Gollum.
Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s "precious" ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.
STARRING:
Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins
Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey
Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield
Andy Serkis as Gollum
Hugo Weaving as Elrond
Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug
Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman
Christopher Lee as Saruman the White
Cate Blanchett as Galadriel
Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins
Orlando Bloom as Legolas
RELEASE DATE: December 14th, 2012.