Christmas Trailer Week continues with the first part of Peter Jackson's fanatically-anticipated return to Middle Earth, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first full clip for which has just arrived.
Crikey: where to start? Well, first we've got Ian Holm as Bilbo, revealing in voice-over that he may not have told Frodo quite the entire story of his previous adventures. Then we cut to earlier times, and the days when Holm was Martin Freeman, whereupon Ian McKellen's Gandalf invites him on a quest and introduces the baker's dozen dwarves (a quick shot for each) that'll be sharing the adventure. We're pronouncing Thorin as it looks written down, by the way. We think we're right in saying that Tolkien would have had us say "Taur-een". But anyway, whatever.
Then there's a turn for the sinister after all that lot, with Thorin and his troop singing an eerie song about The Misty Mountains, as we're given glimpses of Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and Gandalf at Rivendell (we didn't spot Elrond though), and Gandalf in the trolls' stone circle, before some glorious wide-shots of New Zealand Middle Earth landscapes, a bit of mustering and Sting-waving (the sword, not Gordon Sumner), some troll-battling, and a visit to the cave system where Smeagol guards his Precious, and wonders what a Baggins is...
OK, so if we weren't before, now we're excited, and there's another bloody year to wait! Still, we're sure there'll be plenty more to tide us over, not least of which is the first poster, in both formats.Not a single use of the word "Hobbit", you'll notice. Just "An Unexpected Journey, from the director of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy". But it's not like nobody will know what it's talking about.
Pick up the new issue of **Empire** for some of our own adventures on the set. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey** is out on December 14, 2012.