WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Hello, beautiful! The first view of the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) as he menaces poor Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) in “The Hobbit: The Desolution of Smaug.”
Smaug the Dragon is ready for his closeup.
Warner Bros. released the first trailer for “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” the second installment in director Peter Jackson’s prequel trilogy to “The Lord of the Rings,” hit the Internet Tuesday – and it gives a tantalizing first full look of the film’s titular monster.
WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Welcome back! Orlando Bloom reprises the role of Legolas from “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
The scaly beast was briefly glimpsed in last year’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” as just a beedy eye – but he appears in full glory with “teeth like swords and claws like spears” to menace Martin Freeman’s Bilbo in the two minute-and-nine-second clip.
Smaug is portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch (“Star Trek Into Darkness”), who donned a motion capture suit to menace Freeman, his co-star on BBC’s “Sherlock.”
WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Evageline Lilly plays the elf Tauriel, a character added by director Peter Jackson to add balance to the male-heavy fantasy epic.
Tolkein fans are also all aquiver about the return of Orlando Bloom’s bow-wielding Legolas, a major character in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
Joining the cast is newcomer Evangeline Lilly (“Lost”) as the elf warrior Tauriel, a character that does not appear in Tolkein’s novel.
MARK POKORNY
Tangled Web: Martin Freeman’s Bilbo is in desperate need of an exterminator.
“When did we allow evil to become stronger than us,” she asks Legolas – a few seconds before a scene of her leaping and firing an arrow to undercut her lament.
Set 60 years before the events of “Lord of the Rings,” “The Hobbit” films follow mild-mannered Bilbo, as he’s recruited by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to aid a band of dwarves led by Thorin (Richard Armitage) as they try to win back their ancestral mountain from Smaug – or (more likely) die trying.
WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Richard Armitage returns as Thorin Oakenshield.
Jackson told the Daily News last December, before the release of “Unexpected Journey,” that he wasn’t’ sure if he wanted to go there and back again to Middle Earth after the enormous success of his previous trilogy.
“I was a little bit worried about repeating myself or competing with myself,” Jackson said at the time at his Wellington, New Zealand-based production facility hours after finishing the final cut of the movie.
WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Bilbo’s band reaches the Lonely Mountain, where Smaug has holed up.
“I thought, lightning could only strike once.”
The forecast, based on the trailer, calls for lightning on Dec. 13, when “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” arrives in theaters.
WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Ian McKellen also returns in the second part of director Peter Jackson’s “Hobbit” trilogy.
WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Luke Evans joins the cast as Bard, a major character in J.R.R. Tolkein’s tale.
WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Goblin Azog is back hunting dwarves in “The Desolation of Smaug.”
[NYDailyNews]