At this point it’s probably illegal to not be excited for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, even if you aren’t a Tolkien fan (which, really? Not even a little? Because I'm not saying Stephen Colbert will find you, but I think we all know Stephen Colbert will find you). Now, Air New Zealand has revealed that Smaug the Dragon, the Hobbit's scaly, fire-breathing Erebor-stealer, is plastered along one of its planes housed in Auckland.
Smaug on a Plane
It appears that like the rest of us, Air New Zealand’s feelings on the movie’s upcoming release fall somewhere between these lines:
Only 12 days to go, Stephen. Be strong
Air New Zealand pasted Smaug—a 177-foot graphic designed by Peter Jackson’s visual-effects company Weta Digital—on each side of a Boeing 777-300 aircraft. The airline also featured hobbit characters on a different Boeing 777-300 last year for the first part of the hobbit story, An Unexpected Journey, which, like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the newest film, Jackson shot in New Zealand.
“Capturing Smaug’s presence and the amazing detail in his design while accommodating the windows, doors and wing shape was quite a different experience for us,” Eric Saindon, visual effects supervisor of Weta Digital, said in a statement. “It was great to see Smaug brought to life, and he appears even larger in the film.”
Smaug will fly to Los Angeles on Monday night for the movie’s premiere, and the airline has also released a Hobbit-themed promotional video a few weeks prior designed to coincide with the premiere, complete with the tagline “Middle Earth: It’s closer than you think.”
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will be in theaters December 13, which is regrettably still 12 very long days away. But in the meantime, you can watch and re-watch the movie trailer here.
Source Mashable.
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