The Hobbit

Lee Pace

The past month was full of news for The Hobbit movie, which got me all excited. Shooting has started and most of the major characters has been cast. So for those who don't know yet, eight of the original Lord of the Rings actors are returning including Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom whose characters are not even in the book.

I trust Peter Jackson's judgement when it comes to casting and it's great that I only recognize two actors for the dwarves, Richard Armitage and Dean O'Gorman (Young Hercules' Iolaus!!!). Time to give credit to lesser known, great thespians. But what surprised me was that he chose an American actor for the Elven King Thranduil and he's none other than Lee Pace (The Fall, and Pushing Daisies). *fangirl squee! Lee Pace, who will play Legolas' father. Lee Pace, who is younger than Orlando Bloom. How cool is that?

In other Hobbit-related news, the Polish Book Cover contest hosted by 50 Watts has just been concluded. I've heard about the contest two days before the deadline and it really interested me because I've always been fascinated by Polish Graphic Design. All you needed to do was make a Polish Book Cover version of your favourite book. And I thought why not? I just have to decide first which book I liked best.

I narrowed them down to The Secret Garden, The Name of the Rose, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. But since I couldn't think of designs for the others, I settled with The Hobbit. The image on the right I sketched on paper, photographed and edited in GIMP. Personally I think it's a rough version of something that needed to be redone by a professional graphic artist, or at least someone who's better than me in using a graphic software. The handwritten J.R.R. Tolkien text still makes me LOL. Nevertheless, I sent my entry.

Of course I did not win, but contests like these are great thinking exercises. Gotta join the next contest in line... =)

Link to the winning entries here