Darker Look At Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

New still hints that some of the bleakness of Middle-Earth will be carried over into the Lord of the Rings prequel.

By Matt Holmes /

Hero Complex have debuted a new, grittier image of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, coming to 3D, 2D and IMAX cinemas from December 14th. This is the darkest still from the otherwise rather gleeful looking Lord of the Rings prequel, which included the song-heavy trailer released last month. Of course The Hobbit is a kids book aimed at a younger audience than The Lord of the Rings but it's nice to see some of the bleakness of Middle-Earth will be carried over into the new film. Certainly producer Phillipa Boyens, who consciously know that the audience who saw The Lord of the Rings prequel the first time round are now a decade older, spike about the challenges of finding the right tone for the prequel;
€œThe story is very much a children€™s story so deciding how to tell this was one of the first things we had to do,€ Boyens said. €œWho is the audience? It is very distinctly different, tonally, to €˜Lord of the Rings€™ until the very end and then you begin to see the world of Middle Earth opening up€but, having said that, we felt that it is the same audience and then you start to worry because it is easy to repeat yourself. It is quite a similar journey, you€™re going from the Shire to a large, dangerous mountain.€
The Hobbit follows Bilbo (Freeman) as he joins Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and his 12 dwarf companions (Graham McTavish, Ken Stott, Aidan Turner, Dean O'Gorman, Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter), to reclaim the treasures of their dwarf kingdom, Erebor. The treasures which have been claimed by the mighty dragon, Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch), are of untold wonders. Their travels lead them through mazes of treacherous tunnels and mountainsides, lands invested with orcs and goblins, battles along the slopes of the mighty Lonely Mountain, and a run in with a peculiar creature by the name of Gollum (Andy Serkis). Reprising their roles from The Lord of the Rings are Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), Hugo Weaving (Elrond), Christopher Lee (Saruman) and in book-end scenes Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Ian Holm (Bilbo Baggins). Mikael Persbrandt (Beorn), Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel), Lee Pace (Thranduil), Stephen Fry (Master of Lake-town), Luke Evans (Bard the Bowman) and Sylvester McCoy (Radagast the Brown) also support.