This Thranduil guy really knows how to throw a party.
We’ve been speculating about the new titles for the two three Hobbit movies ever since we heard Peter Jackson was splitting the two movies into three in order to add the 125 pages of The Appendices. The web site names recently registered for the Hobbit franchise suggested several titles for the additional movie, including The Desolation of Smaug, Riddles in the Dark, and The Battle of Five Armies. Our money — which we created ourselves using upcycled newspapers and glitter paint — was on the title The Desolation of Smaug. That title refers to the barren land around Erebor and Dale, where Smaug the Dragon (Benedict Cumberbatch) burned everything with his nasty dragon halitosis.
Now we know the titles and release dates for all three films:
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey comes out this December 14th.
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug comes out December 13th, 2013.
- The Hobbit: There And Back Again comes out July 18th, 2014.
All movies will release in 2D, 3D, IMAX, and 3D 48 frames per second, even though the 48 fps footage didn’t get the greatest reception at CinemaCon. If only Party Thranduil had been there. He could have cheered those critics right up. And the ones he can’t cheer up will just have to answer to Deal With It Gandalf.
[Sources: /film, Gingerhaze, Adrian]