Are you curious as to what it took to make “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” a reality? Here’s a by-the-numbers look on the fun facts surrounding the production of the Peter Jackson film.
- Number of crew member whose sole job on set was to look after prosthetic hands: 1
- Years the textures department at Weta Digital worked on Smaug’s skin: 25
- Average days shooting on a single set: 26
- Inches that 15-year-old actor John Bell (Bain) grew over the length of production: 4
- Tons of silicon used to generate the facial prosthetics: 4
- Hours to complete hair, make-up, prosthetics and wardrobe for each of the 13 Dwarves: 5
- Average number of doubles used for each main character, including scale, stunt and riding doubles: 5
- Length of toupe tape used to attach beards to faces: 7 km
- Weeks of location filming on the Trilogy: 9
- Human hair for wigmaking: 10kg; Wigs created for the Dwarves: 91
- Average days it took to renew a studio with a new set: 104
- Tons of silicone used to mold all of the armor and weapons for all cultures: 14
- Polystyrene trees, used in various configurations, to make the Mirkwood set: 32
- People it took—including actors, doubles and stunt men—to portray 13 Dwarves: 65
- Age of the oldest vintage microphone used to record the score: 80 years
- Microphones used in the film’s scoring session: 88
- Musicians in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra recording the film’s score: 95
- Studio sets built for the Trilogy: 99
- Hobbit feet for Bilbo: 100+
- Drivers needed to transport the cast and crew to New Zealand locations: 115
- Approximate population of the Trilogy’s art department: 250+
- Beards made for the production: 263
- Bottles of spirit gum used in the production: 300
- Traveling weapons for the 13 Dwarves: 547
- Crew traveling on location between two units: 800
- Bottles of isopropyl alcohol used to remove prosthetics: 860
- ‘Extras’ that needed to be cast for the Trilogy: 1200
- Hand-spun goblets created for Smaug’s Lair: 2000
- Props recorded in the furniture catalogue for Lake-town: 3000
- Approximate number of continuous hours the art department worked to build, decorate, and tear down sets. This involved different crews working 24/7: 8900 hours
- Prosthetics made for the Trilogy: 11,862
- Cups of coffee made by craft services throughout production: 140,000+
- Punched aluminum gold plated coins trickled over Smaug’s Lair: 170,000
From Academy Award®-winning filmmakerm Peter Jackson comes “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” the second in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The three films tell a continuous story set in Middle-earth 60 years before “The Lord of the Rings,” which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar®-winning “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.”
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” continues the adventure of the title character Bilbo Baggins as he journeys with the Wizard Gandalf and thirteen Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield, on an epic quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor.
Having survived the beginning of their unexpected journey, the Company continues East, encountering along the way the skin-changer Beorn and a swarm of giant Spiders in the treacherous forest of Mirkwood. After escaping capture by the dangerous Wood-elves, the Dwarves journey to Lake-town, and finally to the Lonely Mountain itself, where they must face the greatest danger of all—a creature more terrifying than any other; one which will test not only the depth of their courage but the limits of their friendship and the wisdom of the journey itself—the Dragon Smaug.
A production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” will be released in 3D, 2D and IMAX theaters in the Philippines by Warner Bros. Pictures on Dec. 11, 2013.
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