The Hobbit

Director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy smashed box office records at the time of each movie’s release. His prequel to the trilogy title The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, is the first of a three part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein’s 1937 novel, The Hobbit. Jackson expects the Hobbit trilogy movies to be released within months of each other. The story begins in the era of Middle-earth, a good sixty years before The Lord of the Rings. Jackson directed some of the scenes in the film from material Tolkein published in his The Return of the King novel. An Unexpected Journey describes the story of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who is convinced by wizard Gandalf to travel with 13 dwarves on a journey to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from evil Smaug the dragon. About 60 years later, 111-year-old Bilbo writes down the complete story of his adventure to pass down to his nephew, Frodo. Smaug represents one of the more violent characters in Tolkein’s hobbit novels and Jackson does not mitigate the ruthless dragon’s behaviour. Smaug smites many men and women of the two Dale, which The Hobbit graphically depicts. Before filming began in 2011, all of the primary actors trained in sword fighting to ensure authenticity. Jackson shot many of the scenes in New Zealand, where the film opened internationally on 12 December 2012. Howard Shore composed the sometimes-haunting musical score for An Unexpected Journey, including the original song Song of the Lonely Mountain sung by New Zealander, Neil Finn. The Hobbit received mostly positive reviews from moviegoers and critics and the publicity generated by the film helped it to gross over $1 billion worldwide.