It's not often that a casting announcement is made more than ten months after a project, even one as massive as The Hobbit, but here we are.  The two-film adaptation of the beloved novel by J.R.R. Tolkein officially started shooting last March after innumerable delays, and now, with production still rolling along in New Zealand, the one and only Billy Connolly has officially joined the massive cast of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

The ridiculously successful The Lord of the Rings trilogy featured but one dwarf character – John Rhys Davies's indomitable, tossable Gimli – in its ensemble, but the prequel The Hobbit will feature many a dwarf across both films, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again.  A brand spanking new image from An Unexpected Journey showcases just four of these appetitive, bearded dwarfs.

Last month, that excellent teaser trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey inspired a whole lot of people to start counting down to December 14th without reservation.  Well before the collective nostalgia kicked in, when the two-part The Lord of the Rings prequel was still casting, many fans were skeptical of the decision by Peter Jackson and his co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens to incorporate characters not featured in J.R.R. Tolkein's original novel.  Some of those characters are familiar from the popular trilogy, while others, like the one played by erstwhile Lost actress Evangeline Lilly, were created just for the films.

Remember in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings when Ian Holm's Bilbo Baggins gifts young Frodo, played by Elijah Wood, with a sword that glows blue when orcs are around?  Well, in the upcoming prequel The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, we'll see just how a younger, more adventurous Bilbo acquired that sword, known as Sting.  A new still from the first of the two-part J.R.R. Tolkein adaptation shows Martin Freeman as Bilbo, covered in cobwebs and clutching Sting in what looks like its probably a perilous situation.

Hey, here's a treat: Two official images, one each from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Prometheus, two of the biggest, most anticipated event pictures of 2012.  The images are all kinds of different, with Noomi Rapace wearing her stylish spacesuit in a dark, Giger-y set, and Martin Freeman in full Bilbo Baggins mode on a sunny day in Middle Earth. 

Prometheus and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey have a lot in common, though.  Both are technically prequels to beloved, hugely successful properties, both find crazy-popular directors returning to the properties with which they're most associated, and both see those directors filming features in 3D for the first time in their long careers (Get your Rogue 3D Eyewear right here, folks).  So hey, check out the image from the new movies directed by Ridley Scott and Peter Jackson.

Synopsis: “The Hobbit” follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakensheild. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever … Gollum.

Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

Steven Spielberg, almost inarguably the most famous director on the face of the planet, hasn't released a feature film since 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but this holiday season has brought with it an embarrassment of Spielbergian riches.  Right now in Stateside theaters, there are not one, but two movies directed by Spielberg.  There's the sweeping World War I drama War Horse and the swashbuckling, globe-trotting adventure The Adventures of Tintin, the director's first foray into motion-capture and 3D filmmaking.

The Adventures of Tintin is the first big-budget film centered on the intrepid boy-reporter Tintin, a comic character created by Belgian artist Herge.  The hero and his cohorts have been popular internationally since he first appeared in print more than half a century ago, in 1929.  In order to create imagery appropriate for Herge's creations, Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson employed Weta Digital, the visual effects masters behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Avatar, who deliver a textured, lifelike adventure with all the charm of the cartoonist's designs.

By now, Jamie Beard is a veteran at Weta, having first worked for the company as an animator on The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and followed that up with I, Robot.  He served as a visual effects artist on X-Men: The Last Stand and, more importantly, an animation lead on King Kong and The Lovely Bones, both directed by Jackson.  For The Adventures of Tintin, Beard is the pre-visualization supervisor.  While promoting one of the most technologically advanced movies ever made, Beard engaged in an exclusive interview with IAR Managing Editor Jami Philbrick, wherein he discussed his familiarity with Tintin, the role of pre-vis, working with blockbuster directors, and the hazards of putting a motion-capture suit on a dog.

Last week, the first trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey debuted online, causing the internet to collectively look down and say, "That'll do, Peter Jackson.  That'll do."  That trailer was a huge surprise in that it was not as teasery a teaser as everyone expected, given that the first half of the theatrical take on J.R.R. Tolkein's novel is still a year out from its release.  Now, Jackson and friends have released a new behind the scenes production video, the fifth in an ongoing series, that shows even more of Middle Earth. Specifically, it takes viewers through the exteriors of Tolkein's realm, once again portrayed by the landscapes of Jackson's native New Zealand.  Now inextricably connected to The Lord of the Rings, the nation is again home to hobbits, dwarfs, wizards, and all manner of magical goings on. 

Warner Bros. just released an official image from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in order to get our palms all sweaty for the arrival of the film's first teaser trailer, and now, just as was promised by the sometimes capricious studio gods, that teaser has arrived online.  Said trailer will be attached to prints of The Adventures of Tintin, the Peter Jackson-produced 3D motion-capture feature arriving in American theaters tomorrow, but why wait when you can see it online fo' free?  Oh, and there's a poster, too.

You may have been expecting one of those teasers that reveals very, very little from the film itself, but this a full two and a half minutes of actual material.  We get confirmation that Elijah Wood and Ian Holm will be appearing as Bilbo and Frodo in bookend scenes, along with a solid introduction to Martin Freeman as a young Bilbo.  There's a whole mess of dwarfs, Ian McKellen back in the gray beard as Gandalf (loving him some of the Halfling's Leaf), and most of all, there's real a spirit of adventure.

Almost exactly a decade ago, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring first brought J.R.R. Tolkein's Middle Earth epic to a theater near you, and in order to commemorate you starting to feel properly old, Warner Bros has released a new official still from next year's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  Actually, the image has more to do with imminent arrival of the film's first trailer in mere hours, but let's seize the opportunity to feel time's gnarled fangs digging into our collective ankle.  The still features Martin Freeman as the titular Hobbit, Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End, the older version of whom was played by Ian Holm when director Peter Jackson last took an extensive tour of Tolkein's fantasy land.