Richard Armitage ‘excited’ by The Hobbit

(Cover) - EN Movies - Richard Armitage thinks The Hobbit shoot is “going so fast”.

The actor portrays Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the Company of Dwarves, in Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s middle-earth fantasy novel.

Richard is currently shooting on set in New Zealand and is in awe of the experience.

“It's really weird because when we started it was just this enormous mountain to climb, but actually, it's going so fast,” Richard told MTV News. “I think we've gotten to the halfway point now. It's been really intense but so exciting. We literally just finished our location shoot that we've been out on the road seeing most of New Zealand. It's been the best thing I've ever worked on in my life, by far.”

Richard thinks highly of the set construction. He feels the surroundings are completely authentic.

“The soundstages they made in Wellington, [New Zealand], most of the time it doesn't feel like we've been working on a set,” he explained. “Even when there's a green screen there, Peter's vision of it is so clear and his description of it is so clear. The pre-production CGI that they've already created really fires up your imagination.”

Richard is also happy with the camaraderie he has with his castmates.

“I absolutely love working as an ensemble member, and we really are an ensemble,” he shared. “There is such a diversity of culture and background. It's exactly as the dwarves are. When Thorin assembles the quest, he pulls dwarves from all different places to go on this quest. That's mirrored in who we are as actors.”

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released in December 2012. The follow-up film The Hobbit: There and Back Again will be in theatres December 2013.

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