'The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug' Premiere Brings Together All-Star Cast [Pictures]
Last night (December 3) saw the premiere for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug at Los Angeles’ Chinese Theater. While the final Hobbit film wrapped filming back in summer, the production team and cast, including Martin Freeman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, director Peter Jackson and many others, will still have plenty of chances to catch up at premieres and promotional events leading up to the film’s release. They clearly enjoyed doing so last night, if photos from the premiere are any indication.
The Desolation of Smaug continues the three-part retelling of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings prequel, with this second film centering on Bilbo Baggins’ (Martin Freeman) journey with the dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) to reclaim their stolen treasure and face Smaug the dragon (Benedict Cumberbatch). Along the way they encounter several friends and foes – some familiar, like Orlando Bloom’s Legolas and some new and completely original to Peter Jackson’s trilogy, such as the archer Tauriel, head of the Mirkwood Elven guard.
Check out the trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug below.
Other actors from the film like Luke Evans (Bard the Bowman), Aidan Turner (Kili), Dean O’Gorman (Fili), Stephen Fry (Master of Laketown), William Kircher (Bifur), Manu Bennett (Azog), John Bell (Bain) and Ryan Gage (Alfrid) also walked the red carpet in Downtown LA last night.
Next page: Orlando Bloom, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.
For Orlando Bloom, this is the fifth film within the Lotr universe. The actor was first cast as the valiant elf-prince Legolas back in 2001's Fellowship, which became his breakthrough role. He has since gone on to star in other blockbusters like the Pirates of the Caribbean films and steal the hearts of millions of teenage fangirls, but his role in The Hobbit films is a return to his roots of sorts.
Martin Freeman first played Frodo Baggins' uncle Bilbo back in Fellowship as well, however that was only a minor part, compared to his lead role in The Hobbit trilogy. In the mean time, he has acted in productions like BBC's The Office, 2003's romantic comedy Love Actually and of course, Freeman's cult role as John Watson in the BBC series Sherlock, to be revived in 2014.
Benedict Cumberbatch is part of a new crop of British actors to reach intenational stardom. He came into prominence internationally with his lead role in the BBC series Sherlock, a modern day adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories, headed by Stephen Moffat. Since Sherlock, Cumberbatch has gone on to play the villain Khan in Star Trek: Into Darkness, portray WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the 2013 flop The Fifth Estate and of course, voice Smaug the dragon in the second Hobbit film.