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11 Adventurous Facts About The Hobbit
Originally conceived as a children’s fantasy story, the book went to print only after publisher Sir Stanley Unwin paid his 10-year-old son to read it.
The boy gave the book rave reviews, and the rest is Hobbit history.
There isn’t a single female character in The Hobbit, and the only woman mentioned by name is Bilbo’s mother, Belladonna Took.
When J.R.R. Tolkien sold the film rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (for 100,000 Lbs), he demanded a guarantee that The Walt Disney Company would never be involved with adaptations of his work.
The Hobbit films were the first feature-length movies to be shot and screened at 48 frames-per-second.
Why it might look differently to you in theatres is that this is twice the current speed of most film, 24 frames per second.
Rick Findlater, make-up and hair supervisor, says that in 18 months the production went through roughly 20 liters of glue and 450 miles of Yak hair.
They used so much gold paint creating the dragon Smaug’s lair, that they exhausted supplies in Australasia and had to send to Germany for more.
Andy Serkis who plays Gollum was also a 2nd unit director for the Hobbit films.
Tolkien came up with many of The Hobbit characters’ names, quite a few of them were borrowed from “Poetic Edda,” a Norse poem dating back to the 13th century.
The Dragon Smaug slept on the piles of gold and jewels for many years, allowing them to be crusted into his soft underbelly.
Orlando Bloom (Legolas) is two years older than Lee Pace who plays his father, King Thranduil.
Benedict Cumberbatch performed Smaug's face and arms in motion-capture.
To prepare for this, he spent six months exercising so that he could appear limber and agile for performing.