We're a little over a month away from the release of the first installment of “The Hobbit” trilogy, so you know what that means: more ads! That’s right, not content with already having one of the year’s largest releases — “The Dark Knight Rises” — Warner Bros. is making sure everyone knows about Peter Jackson’s return to Middle Earth with more TV spots, posters and a brand new featurette.
The three new TV spots don’t really offer any more than we’ve already seen; they’re essentially laying out the premise — Gandalf recruits Bilbo for a dangerous adventure with dwarves and he runs into Gollum along the way — for anyone unfamiliar with the novel.
Next up are four new posters, two of which feature Bilbo — hiding from Wargs in one, while in the middle of a feast in another — with the other two focusing not only on the other members of Bilbo’s party but also on a meeting at Rivendell between Gandalf and Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel and Hugo Weaving’s Elrond. What’s interesting is that the Shards of Narsil — the sword that would eventually become Aragorn’s in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy — appear in the Rivendell poster, which suggests that Jackson and co. are looking to make a connection between the two trilogies early (or at least WB’s marketing department is).
As if all that wasn’t enough, the restaurant chain Denny’s — where, in a strange, albeit inspired, bit of synergy, you can eat 'Hobbit'-inspired dishes — has sponsored a featurette that focuses, of course, on the food of the film. There’s not much in the way of enlightening information, but it’s a brief three minutes of your time.
And finally, if you want to make sure you have a seat opening weekend, advance tickets are now available. If you purchase your tickets through MovieTickets.com, you can get a free track from Howard Shore’s score for the film. “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” opens everywhere on December 14th. [Comie Book Movie/Collider/Deadline]
