Richard Armitage Talks Final Desolation Filming, New Line Registers Terrible Alternate Hobbit Title

Thorin Oakenshield: stout of heart, bushy of beard, and utterly majestic in flight. There… there is one I could call king.

Richard Armitage, the actor behind Thorin in The Hobbit, stopped by The One Ring.net to talk about the beginning of the end for the Hobbit trilogy. ‘Tis the season for pickups, additional dialogue recording, and the slow ramp up to full press tour that accompanies a December release of a major ensemble cast blockbuster. But being the third movie in a simultaneously filmed Unexpected Trilogy means that there’s not really much to do.

I know for sure that we’re not going to be filming any more material for the third film. That was something which was a bit up in the air; but there is a bit of sound work to do – a bit of ADR post production voice stuff, which I’m really looking forward to doing, and to seeing the cut of the film. You know, it’s been a while since we were in New Zealand, so I’ve kind of forgotten what we did – so it will be nice to go back and see how that’s shaping up. But I think it will be quite a nostalgic event.

And he dropped some hints for fans who miss some characters who couldn’t be fit into Hobbit cameos:

[The third movie] probably going to be the last time that Middle-earth is seen on the big screen. Peter’s intention to have six films which sit all along side each other will be contained in that one event at the end of the year – so it wouldn’t surprise me if we see some old faces back on the red carpet, in celebration of fifteen years of Peter’s work!

We also can’t help but share his opinion on cosplay for all those lady!Thorins out there:

A lot of [cosplayers dressing as the dwarves] are women – and they’re growing their own beards and everything! It’s kind of amazing that they can do that… [laughs] No, I’ve seen a few bearded ladies… I think it’s brilliant. I’m always immensely impressed at the workmanship, and the way that they’ve looked at the costumes and copied them – I think it’s pretty amazing. And I’m sure it’s one of the reasons why the costume design is so detailed – because they know that people will look at it in that kind of detail, and study it.

The One Ring.net also reports that New Line Cinema has made a troubling trademark registration for the title The Hobbit: Into the Fire. This may be the earliest sign of a title replacement for The Hobbit: There and Back Again, because apparently that one isn’t cool enough or whatever. Well, really, let’s hope not. There and Back Again is a perfectly fine title; it still makes sense even though all the characters are basically there already, it’s the one that’s been in use for years at this point, and it’s part of the title of the book, for heaven’s sake. Into the Fire is, fair enough, from one of The Hobbit‘s chapter titles, but describing events that happened two movies ago. The bigger problem is it sounds dumb, and on top of that the fire-breathing dragon is likely to be killed within the first act of the movie.

You heard me, Hollywood. This idea is dumb, don’t do it.

There. That should fix everything.

(via The One Ring.net.)

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