Exclusive: Photo Of New Weta Sound Stages Nearing Completion AND THE HOBBIT Coverage Kicks Off!!

Jim here. I am officially starting MarketSaw coverage on THE HOBBIT as of right NOW. :-)

There seems to be enough activity to warrant scaling up spy activities for our readers and may I say the wait has been arduous! WAIT NO MORE. lol.

I heard back from one of my better sources connected with THE HOBBIT and it seems that because the movie is not going to be 2D (which would have had a July'ish start), it will be ramping up in the November time frame as more prep is needed for S3D. This is not just from my source either - this is the word from the film community, set people and vfx folks. Another reason for the delay is the obvious financial issues with MGM (TORn has a good recent article on this).

The project itself is EXTREMELY quiet right now - to get this information out was very difficult. The cone of silence has definitely been lowered over this project and justifiably so; the world is holding its breath for more Middle-earth news.

That said, we can start talking about a couple of things: Sound stages AND Hobbiton - their construction is well underway. Amazing that there is no official green light as of yet on this thing because there is definitely money being spent!

The new sound stages on the film lot are almost finished and it looks like two large rooms under one roof with the potential of connecting the two.

One of our intrepid spies managed a shot of the exterior of the buildings.

Are we sure they are part of the lot? Yes! Walls are being torn down and ramps built to the central parking lot / production buildings on the opposite side.

One can almost imagine the giant green screens eventually being positioned within the new buildings to help create the dragon Smaug interacting with our adventuresome hobbits.

And what about Hobbiton? TORn has some great shots of how Hobbiton is being groomed for action! Check out one of the shots here and click on over to TORn for the rest.

Apparently a team of 60 has started work breaking new ground on Hobbit holes. Seems we may be able to actually enter these ones as they are significantly larger that the originals.

Keep it right here on MarketSaw as we activate our embedded assets in Wellywood :-) It is time to cover THE HOBBIT!!

More "Avatar" Backlot Photos...

Here are the rest of the exclusive images taken by the "Pandoran Plant Life Photographer" for MarketSaw. Some interesting things of note:
- The tent with opaque walls in pic one seems to be where the cast/crew would eat outside.
- There is a small green screen located in photo number two - interesting that it is so small; Cameron getting some close up shots of something smaller needing a CGI background? Hmmm.
- Some of the cast trailers are clearly visible in pic 1 too. The photographer will be trying to get some star shots in the coming days for us... JC, could you please send them out to their trailers in full battle gear please? Thanks man.