Welly-moot #3.5 report (from October 26)

Another two months, and another meeting has been held, once again at the Roxy Cinema in Wellington's Miramar suburb. It was well attended, we ended up having to shift to another part of the building to accommodate everyone, and then bring in more seats as well, so that was good.

Jack and Alex opened the meeting, and there were introductions all round. Jack had some updates also on other business.

• The Rivendell Archway is now completed, at the Kaitoke Regional Park in the filming locations, exactly where the original stood. All the building work has been completed, and the paint has been applied. Only two things remain - we are waiting for the end of summer so we can apply a layer of weather-dependent artificial yogurt-mould, and in the next three months we're expecting an official opening ceremony from the Wellington Great Regional Council. Jack will update the group when this takes place.

• The Hobbit 3 - The Battle Of The Five Armies will open early in December for general release, the exact date will probably be December 11th or thereabouts. The World-Premiere red carpet event will be held in London, as expected. A few functions have already been announced; a (more) complete list will be posted later.

• Welly-mooter Emily (aka 'Sadie von Scrumtious') has announced that there will be another Middle-earth themed Burlesque Cabaret to celebrate the last Hobbit movie. The event will be held in Wellington at The Fringe Bar on December 5th and 6th (Friday and Saturday). Both nights will feature a costume competition for the audience, so prepare to get involved! The event has an R18 rating (for adult themed naughtiness!), and tickets will be around $25. I'll post more details on our facebook page at a later date.

• Welly-mooter Kumiko has won the Student Prize at the end of her three year Weltec course’s Graduation Exhibition, to loud applause from her peers and the rest of the audience. Well done Kumi!

• The Stansborough Prizedraw is in full swing, so if you want to win a full-sized Gandalf Hat, make sure you're in to win!

• Sir Peter Jackson's Hobbit Fan Competition has finished, and the winners selected - of the 150 biggest fans around the world, three of them are Welly-mooters! Ash and Cinnamon managed to snag a seat to New Zealand (ok, not far to fly!), and on the names list, I noticed that Nicolas Gonzalez, formerly of Milford Sound but recently returned to Spain, is also returning to Middle-earth. Well done, all of you, and also to all those who tried and weren't successful. On the Welly-moot facebook page we'll be following their adventures through screenshots taken from the New Zealand 100% Pure YouTube videos. Follow us there!

Theme: Hobbit 3 BOFTA - What's The Story?

Finally, we got around to the theme of the day - what will be in the final Hobbit installment. Peter Jackson's last Hobbit film will includes plenty of sword-clashing and arrow-flying action for your dollar, but there’s also a lot of story materials. We spent a large part of the afternoon covering these points (and more!)

• Smaug, having left his treasure-filled nest, will wreak havoc on Laketown
• Thorin has yet to actually retake the Lonely Mountain for his people
• Bard’s quest for redemption needs closure
• Four Dwarves have been left in Laketown (Kili, Fili, Bofur & Ori) – what will their roles be in Laketown?
• The relationship between Tauriel and Kili
• Amidala will get pregnant with twins, while Anakin will turn to the dark side
• The movie needs to carve out screen-time for Bilbo (Martin Freeman), so that his story may actually be brought to a proper concluding point; after all, he's the main link between Hobbit and LOTR
• Setting up other developments that transpire in the Lord of the Rings films

Other points:

• According to the predicted synopsis posted on TheOneRing.net, Thorin will get obsessed with the treasure in the mountain and will refuse to share it --- remember that Thorin's grandfather grew mad with his obsession with gold in the previous movies
• Smaug is not the only danger faced by the Dwarves. The Necromancer has sent legions of Orcs to attack the Lonely Mountain. In the second movie Gandalf was the amongst the first to discover the Necromancer's return in Dol Guldur. He also witnessed the march of his armies.
• A difficult question in Hobbit 3 is posed to all the races in Middle-earth. Elves, Dwarves and Men will have to decide whether they will stand together against the forces of Sauron or die fighting between themselves. So far, there appears to be no good relationships among them.

On a related note, two days before the meeting, a number of leaked photos were posted to TheOneRing.net, probably from the new Brian Sibley "Making of Hobbit 3" book due out in the next month or so. The photos were pulled from the site within 24 hours, but one of the mooters managed to take copies before they were removed. After checking with everyone if potential spoilers would be acceptable, they were shown briefly. If anything, they just made us want to watch the movie even more! And no, they won't be posted here.  
[I will give one detail though - ominously, a pre-battle Thorin appears to be wearing a RED SHIRT. Not good. Just sayin'.]

All too soon, it was time to pack up again. By the time of the next moot, we will (hopefully!) all have seen the movie, and we will no doubt have a lot of new information to digest!

As seems to have become a Welly-moot tradition, Jack & Alex are planning on having another post-christmas moot/party at their house, but full details will be announced in due time.