Either this is an image of Martin Freeman having accidentally stumbled into the executive’s lounge over at Warner Bros. since they decided to split the The Hobbit into three movies, or it’s an early glimpse of Bilbo Baggins in the second entry of Peter Jackson’s latest trilogy: The Desolation of Smaug. By the looks of things, it’s the latter, but only because Martin Freeman is dressed like a character from Middle-Earth. And, to be honest, there’s probably way more gold in the executive lounge at Warner Bros. right now.
From that shocked face, this is likely an image from what promises to be the great climax of the second movie, in which Bilbo enters the lair of dragon Smaug, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch (who worked alongside Martin Freeman on BBC’s modern Sherlock Holmes re-imagining Sherlock). Though they bickered their way through that show with comic appeal, the banter between Bilbo and Smaug is likely to be a whole lot hotter. And by hotter, we mean that Smaug will want to set Bilbo on fire and murder him.
Bilbo was chosen to accompany the party of dwarves, of course, because Smaug doesn’t recognise the scent of hobbit, a neat feature that can be used to their advantage when it comes to stealing back their precious treasure. “The dragon is a huge, wonderful, amazing part of [the second film], but it doesn’t end there,” said writer/producer Philippa Boyens on Smaug’s role. She also went on to say that “everyone can suspect there’s a rather large battle in film three,” because that’s what happens in the book.
For now, though, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits theatres worldwide on December 14th and stars Martin Freeman, Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Barry Humphries, James Nesbitt, Christopher Lee and Richard Armitage.
What do you think on the new image, then? Does this get you excited for the second chapter already? Let us know in the comments section below.
Source: Total Film
