Come on, people! Let's get more discussion of The Hobbit going! It's exciting! Talktalktalk! Etc. etc.

Anyway, what do you think the various locations in The Hobbit should look like? Do you know of any spots in New Zealand that you think would be perfect? For example, people were talking about Mount Taranaki being used as the Lonely Mountain...



...but alas, I think a news site reported that the Lonely Mountain would probably be CGI and not an actual location.

Even though we know the locations will be NZ-based, are there places around the world that look EXACTLY how you picture some of the locations? What mountain range looks most like the Misty Mountains to you? How do you picture Mirkwood - kind of like the movie depiction of Fangorn, or completely different foliage?

And for the locations that were already present in the LotR movies and will be used again in The Hobbit, do you think they will / should be changed at all? Should Rivendell look different from what we saw in Fellowship?

Discuss! Post pictures! Whee!

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I think I read somewhere about some mountain (or mountains) in NZ that PJ and crew wanted to use for the Hobbit but that the local Maori population put a stop to it. Obviously these sites are sacred to them but it's still a shame.

I don't know why, but I always envisioned Mirkwood as a pine/spruce kind of forest (or temperate coniferous forest if you will), probably because I was still a child when I had the Hobbit read to me and that's what most of the forests around here look like.

Like this:

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^That'd be great for Mirkwood, Eru - at least if they have more looming trees and generally a more threatening atmosphere. I'd love to see them do a pine forest, though, it'd feel really home-y

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by Lembas

Yeah, if memory serves, Maori tribes were objecting to any filming done on Taranaki Understandable but still sad. Ah well, Weta will do a fantastic job creating something from scratch.

Re Mirkwood - isn't it supposed to be more, uh, creepy? Or am I remembering it incorrectly? I have this mental image of it as dark, dark, dark, no sunlight whatsoever, just lots of dead things and giant spiders

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Hence the name Mirkwood Pine forests can be pretty dank and dark though, if the trees are clustered enough. So it might work. They'll do a good job of it no matter what they choose though

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by Lembas

I think Tolkien said Mirkwood is supposed to be mostly made up of beech trees, especially in the part where the wood elves live. I was kind of thinking they would probably do Mirkwood on set in a studio, since that's what they did with Fangorn, which is sort of in the same vein. I kind of hope they do; I don't think there's any forest in existence anymore that has the dense creepiness of Mirkwood as I imagine it in the book.

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Did I read correctly [on some site I cannot place] that Hobbiton scenes will not actually be filmed at the location used in the trilogy?

Unless something's majorly changed, I'm pretty sure they're still working with the set in Matamata, where Hobbiton was originally filmed. But then again I could have missed the memo... It would be really sad if they switched locations, though, because I heard that this time they would make the sets permanent even after filming wrapped so it could be a better tourist attraction...which would be amazing

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

I'm thinking mirkwood should be quite a bit different than Fangorn... I liked the pictures ErulissëEnethNîn posted. *nods*

And honestly I kind of think that the Misty mountains should be CGI because if they used a real location it wouldn't be as much "Midle-earthy" to me... it would seem like something you could see in real life... because it would be. I mean all the places they used worked perfect in all the other movies but I like that they use the graphiocs to enhance that and make it a little more fantisy ish... *shrugs*

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http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/fi ... untangling

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-news/ente ... it-hobbled

After reading the articles, I have a hard time believing that the councils won't give them extensions for filming. Trust me, there is NOTHING in Matamata besides Hobbiton tourism, and I really doubt they'd risk losing that...especially if the article's right that they've already built stuff meant to last 50 years for tourists to see in the future.

Re Misty Mountains, I do kind of envision them being more...well, pointy and tall than almost any mountains that exist in real life. That said, the Southern Alps are so amazing that it'd be a shame to waste them:



^ Is that mist I see?

It would be so fricking epic if they could do something like this, except pointier:



Somehow I doubt they're going to film in Pakistan, though.

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That does look nice. It would be realy neat if they would do something like that. I like how it's all baren, no trees... just rock and snow. But yeah... lol I doupt they will film in pakastan too.

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