picture by THE HOBBIT on MARCH 21, 2011

Who can believe it’s been eight years since the last installment of the “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy was bestowed upon us and how long my dear “Tolkien fandoms” have we been waiting for more from our beloved director Peter Jackson especially in the form of “The Hobbit”? Well, good news, on Monday filming finally began on the long-awaited movies, ending years of delay due to funding problems and a labor dispute which nearly saw the project pulled out of New Zealand.
“The Hobbit” is based on the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who lives in the land of Middle-earth and journeys to the Lonely Mountain accompanied by a group of dwarves to reclaim a treasure taken from them by the dragon Smaug. The book, first published in 1937, is the precursor to the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, which also takes place in Middle-earth.
The cast for the movies will include Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom, Ken Stott and Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins.
Both films of course are being directed by New Zealand native Peter Jackson, 49, who made the hit Oscar-winning “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
Stone Street Studios in Wellington will be the home of the project whilst a number of other locations around New Zealand will also play host to the films (the exact whereabouts are a highly guarded secret). Unfortunately we still have some time to wait until the first of the two films is released in December 2012 and the second will likely follow a year later.
The movies have been plagued by a succession of problems, most notably the threat last year by Time Warner Inc unit Warner Bros. to move production overseas because of fears unions would impose a boycott to back demands for a collective contract.
The government last year changed labor laws to keep the estimated $500 million production and increased tax breaks for Warner Bros, citing the damage that might be done to the country’s small film industry.
Before that, in 2010 issues around the funding of the films saw original director Guillermo Del Toro quit. The final test came when Jackson was hospitalized earlier this year for emergency surgery for a perforated ulcer.
So onwards an up wards now, better go dust off my Anduril and find my Elven ear tips.

Penguin Books just announced that Valerie Plame (Former CIA operative) will co-author a fiction spy series of books with a female undercover espionage operative as the central character.   The timing of the announcement seems perfectly scheduled with the release of the movie “Fair Game” due out on DVD on March 29 2011

Fair Game was the thriller film directed by Doug Liman based on Valerie Plame’s memoir, “Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House”.  It starred Naomi Watts as an uber stylish Plame along with Sean Penn as her husband, Joseph C. Wilson.

Penguin said in a statement Plame will write a “new international suspense series” with mystery author Sarah Lovett.  The first book in the as yet untitled series will be published in the United States and Canada next year by publisher David Rosenthal.

Plame’s status as a CIA agent was revealed by White House officials allegedly out to discredit her husband after he wrote a 2003 New York Times op-ed piece saying that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq.

The film “Fair Game” was actually a Moviewalla favorite of 2010.  An epic David vs. Goliath political thriller where Goliath is the US Government. Watts and Penn gave excellent performances as the main protagonists and frankly I was rather surprised that neither got any 2010 Oscar love. Watts and Penn were not only believable as a married couple but inherently; they were able to convey that this tale is as much spy thriller as it is about a marriage under pressure.  This film captured perfectly the human cost of espionage AND it had a heart

Definitely a film to put in your queue or rent as it has the ability to rile you up and entertain all in one fail swoop which is not easy these days

Check out the trailer for ‘Bad Teacher’ at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3131219225/

The preview for this film looks like fun. ‘Bad Teacher’ certainly has what looks like a great cast for a comedy: Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake and Jason Segel. Cameron Diaz should know that she is never stronger than when she is in a good comedy. Timberlake has the good sense to make fun of his own image in most of his films. And Jason Segel knows his way around funny (‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’, ‘I Love You Man’, and TV’s underrated ‘How I Met Your Mother’). I really hope this film does not suck.

Because previews often mislead. Some are so long, and reveal so much of the film, they might as well screen the whole damn movie while they are at it (for shame, ‘Iron Man 2’). Some trailers however are amazing, stand-alone films in their own right that know exactly how to whet audience interest in a movie, e.g., the preview for the new ‘Star Trek’ reboot. I have the highest respect however for trailers that give nothing away about a film, or show very little footage of the movie, but still manage to create excitement (e.g., ‘The Social Network’, or my personal favorite, ‘Alien’). The worst of all are good trailers for bad movies (are you listening, ‘Red Riding Hood’?). In this instance, I guess at least the individuals hired to create the trailer did their job well; it is just the audience who gets robbed out of their money.

What is your favorite movie trailer?

In 2009 Pixar Animation Studios released “Up”, a film which centered on an elderly widower named Carl Fredricksen and an earnest young Wilderness Explorer named Russell who eventually steals his affections. Most of us however will likely remember the film for the breathtaking scenes of the two co pilots flying to South America in a house suspended by helium balloons.

In the movie, the stunt comes about as a result of Carl wanting to keep his home (threatened by eviction) as he turns his house into a makeshift airship, using thousands of helium balloons to lift it off its foundations.  Of course this was impressive imagination but surely you remember the phrase “ if you dream it, then you can do it?” – ok not so well known (uh hum) but it applies because on Saturday morning, March 5, this very scene was recreated (minus the animated copilots).  At dawn, a team of scientists, engineers and two world-class balloon pilots successfully launched a 16′ X 16′ house 18′ tall with 300 8′ colored weather balloons from a private airfield east of Los Angeles, and set a new world record for the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted.  The entire experimental aircraft was more than 10 stories high and reached an altitude of over 10,000 feet and flew for approximately one hour.  The footage will be part of a new NGC series called “HOW HARD CAN IT BE?” which will premiere in fall 2011.  If you can’t wait until fall, watch some of the exclusive footage right here.

For the past week, the internet has been a-buzz about the trailer for the highly anticipated new science fiction/horror flick Apollo 18, made by Dimension which claims to include found footage of a secret moon landing in 1973.  In its first six days, the trailer was viewed a colossal 4.3 million times.   “Found-footage” films seem to gaining traction and seem like valuable investments for studios these days given the recent successes like “Cloverfield” and “Paranormal activity”. “People intrinsically know there are secrets being held from us,” explains Dimension head Bob Weinstein. “Look at WikiLeaks: There are secrets that are really true to the world. It’s not bogus.” Weinstein also recoils at the idea that Apollo 18 is a work of fiction. “We didn’t shoot anything,” he says. “We found it!”

Dimension will be taking advantage of social media and the internet for their marketing campaign for this film – a first for them given  “The traditional way has always been television” Indicated Weinstein.  The indie studio’s marketing executive, Bladimiar Norman, advises eager fans to continue to play close attention in the weeks leading up to the film’s April 22 release. “We’re about to take this up a notch and really have fun with this audience,” Norman stated. In fact, he even revealed the film has a secret website (Click here) where fans can access bonus material. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer – I can’t wait for this one

The Oscars have finally arrived and we have cogitated and postulated and shared our opinions about our favorite and not so favorite films in 2010 (and beyond it seems).  Here now see a list of our predictions along with who we would award the golden statue to if it were up to us…who knows, one day it may be 😉

Follow along tomorrow as we chat live on our Facebook Discussion page and join us with your opinions.  Happy Watching Movie fans