The search for Richard Armitage is well and truly over!
The One Ring has confirmed that our precious will take part in the Hobbit panel at Comic-Con in San Diego on the 14th of July. Joining him will be Martin Freedman, Andy Serkis, Sir Ian McKeller, Philippa Boyens, and Sir PJ himself.
Is it just me, or does this seem like quite the honour?
I don’t want to read into this too much, but if three actors are chosen to represent the film, and it’s Sir Ian, Freedman and Armitage, that’s quite a distinguished group of actors, right?
This is how I think it all came about:
RA: Alright there, Sir PJ?
PJ: Yeah, good. You?
RA: Not bad, thanks.
PJ: So, a bunch of us are going over to San Diego for the weekend in July. Wanna come?
RA: Sure, yeah, nothing planned apart from tearing down ivy at my house in London. Who’s going?
PJ: Ya know, Gandalf, Smeagol, Bilbo, some other guys. We’ll kick back a few Buds, have a laugh, give a few interviews. It’ll be cool. You interested?
RA (scratches beard): Yeah, cool. Can I travel with my sword?
PJ: Should be OK. Let me get my assistant to make a few calls, I guess we could book the seat next to you on the plane…
RA: First class though, right? Me and my sword, we only travel first class!
PJ: Sure, I’ll see what I can do… Don’t worry, Sir Ian travelled with that Gandalf staff for years after we shot LOTR…
My only regret?
I didn’t hear the name ‘Aidan Turner’ thrown into the mix.
I think I’m just too eye-candy greedy, though…
I Want to be a Pin Up 
Guy wants you to know he is also attending along with his magic sword. Still sorting through costume ideas, although his RH threads would work fine. He’s such a vain creature, my Guy . . .
As I said in an earliest post on my blog, I take the fact Richard will be there with Martin and Sir Ian as one of the three leads is “topfold news” for our little community.
I would have enjoyed seeing Aidan, too, but if it came down to Aidan or Richard–NO contest. After all, he IS Alpha Dwarf!! 😀
I can’t have it both ways with Richard and Aidan (or can I???), so I’m thrilled at least on of the bearded beaties will be there. With all that anticipation, I’m releaved RA will be there. Don’t forget to pack your smelling salts and some plaster. OK, that more of a request from me. If you have a chance to make a cast of that behind, I have a feeling you’d make a bundle in this community 😉
LOL well, you know they ARE having a seminar on making resin molds and casts and such so perhaps Richard would be lovely enough to participate and serve as a model. 😉 I have been worrying just a little that i might hyperventilate or something when I enter his presence. I think I will be repeating over and over in my head, “I think I can maintain my composure, of course I can maintain my composure, I must maintain my composure . . .” 😉
I am assuming you’ve seen “Desperate Romantics” with Aidan? You see quite a lot of him in that (and I don’t mean the size of his role). 😉
I believe in fate, that cast and molds seminar seems to be too big of a coincidence. Just have plenty of coins at the ready. When he passes you, drop them all. When he leans over to pick them up (as we know he will because he is a gentleman after all), slap that stuff on there, he’ll be none the wiser 😉
Then get ready to run, because security will be all over you 😉
PS. I have Desperate Romantics lined up, now I REALLY want to see it. It official I’m a dirty dirty woman LOL!
I thought you would like that it is just Bilbo, Gandalf and Thorin (I think AS is there as a director, more than as Gollum)! If this is any indication of RA’s importance in the movie and in the publicity campaign, there is no need to worry that he will be overshadowed or voluntarily step back from PR duties.
It clears up a lot of what we’ve been discussing. I know Andy is going as a director, but it just seemed funnier to go the Gollum / Smeagol route 😉 I think it speaks volumes about RA’s importance in the project, so our fears that his part might have been cut down seems unfounded!
Well, Gollum is certainly an iconic character! I hope from now on we will get input from those involved in the project and reports will change. Most journalists that have written about the Hobbit production before had no idea what it is about! And the few that actually had a clue respectively visited the set wrote favourably about RA, saying that they observed him filming and were impressed.
That’s the one thing that makes me very happy. Any mention of RA is extremely favorable. And we’re not talking about comments on how woman from the crew swoon around him. There are a few RA roles that clearly were a start of something new (in my opinion, although I think Richard ahd mentioned their importance in interviews too)That would be Sparkhouse, then N&S. In both these roles you can see a whole new thought process for RA as an actor. I think the Hobbit is yet another huge step for him, and I think this will reflect on screen.
“Me and my sword, we only travel first class,” had me in stitches. Yes Richard, that is exactly as it should be! 😉 I too am hoping this is just a foreshadowing of how the Hobbit promotion is going to go. RA front and center works for me. 🙂
Yup, Jas. I really hope so! It’s seems like such an honour, and everyone will be writing about the panel. Keeping my fingers crossed for our lovely!
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Hi Pin Up!
Comic Con will be Richard Armitage’s more formal introduction to the world of international filmmaking marketers as one of the key Hobbit lead actors and stars. Oh to be a fly on the wall at that panel. So I will eagerly await Fedoralady’s reports after she attends the panel.
I wonder how Mr. Armitage’s participation in the Comic Con Hobbit panel will differ from his more laid back participation at the February 2011 initial Hobbit press conference. RA now has two Hobbit films under his belt–so to speak–as one of the leads. And he will have fewer people on the dais to have to share speaking time with. Although, Sir PJ will probably take the lion’s share of the time as director, writer and producer. But I will hazard a guess that Richard Armitage will indeed be front and center as others have surmised. Bully for him!
All I can say is “Look out world, here comes Richard Armitage”!
Cheers! Grati ;->
“Front and center” and “Look out world, here comes Richard Armitage”! What wonderful sentiments Grati!! It makes me even more excited about the whole thing! He SO deserves every accolade that will finally come his way. It’s about time! 🙂
Hello Grati 🙂 The Feb 2011 conference already showed a very confident, and very masculine RA. It differed from the previous interviews. He seemed to have controlled his shyness, and he was very journalist savvy. I think that Sir PJs people will advise him on what to say, on his body language. Let’s remember that they are all bound by the confidentiality agreement, they don’t want any spoilers. I think we’ll get just enough to whet our appetites (and we will be drooling, I promise you that!).
Fedoralady has my full support and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this event will be all she dreams it will be! I’m a sucker for people being bold, venturing out and making their dreams come true 🙂
Aiden Who??? I think Sir PJ has been very canny in not spotlighting RA since the Powhiri ceremony. He’s given time for the actor to prove his instinct true that he has a Thorin! (and PJ knows that RA has an avid fan group) – so it makes perfect sense to keep him under wraps for a couple of years….appetite grows with famine. In publicity – less can be more.
I don’t think that in this context RA’s old and faithful fans matter at all, we are such a small group and 99% of the world’s population still have no idea who he is.
And that is about to change . . . I wonder what is going through Richard’s mind as the film prepares to wrap and he gets ready for Comic-Con. Excitement, relief, trepidation . . .
I can imagine that stress would be the strongest emotion! Espacially if he knows that we have our own (wo)man on the inside at Comic-Con! LOL! I bet he’ll look under his bed before he goes to sleep! But seriosly, this is a huge event, an each word he says will be analyzed, scrutinized. You’ll do great, Richard! You’ll be beating them of with a stick! Both journalists, who will be intrigued, and the ladies!
I think Fitzg, I am about to eat my words, as I am starting to see a clear pattern of PR here. I’m not sure how much we as the RArmy register on anyones radar in any other way than: Oh look he has a small group of loyal supporters! but I can see that this dosing could be interesting to new fans, people will become intrigued, and there’s not much worse than an exploited star (I’m looking at you Kim K, Paris Hilton and Gaga!). I’m watching this starting to play out with interest!
Agreed. In any interview where the fans are mentioned (i.e. most of them), it’s always in a “and you have an Army of fans, do you?” and make us all out to be some sort of lunatic fringe group made up mostly of middle-aged women. Perhaps in that way, it’s GOOD that he’s opening up to the world … so that more people can see that he’s the talented actor we’ve known him to be for years, without the stigma of being “one of those crazy Army women”. If you know what I mean? WE know we’re not a lunatic fringe group, and we’re of all different kinds of ages. To journalists, though, to have a rabid “Army” of love-struck housewives sounds more fun than just having a lot of ardent admirers, sad as it is.
Are we sometimes used? Sure. I don’t mind it, especially that we seem to have created something larger than the sum of our parts. I didn’t realize how unique our group was until I started researching Aidan Turner. There’s a few fans, here and there, but nothing in comparison to the fandom reality we have created. The thing is, we know who and what we are. I struggle to explain the whle concept to an ‘outsider’. How RA is a jumping off point for many other things, how we grow as people, how being a part of the RArmy has made us creative. I know we’re not gaga, but that’s what’s expected of fans. I can honestly say I wouldn’t know what to do with RA nail clippings or chewing gum ala Britney. I guess if I was the stereotypical fan, as seen by the mass media, I’d find some disturbing use for them 😉
Very true! 🙂 In that way, it’s a good thing that we’re organised – and the whole inspiration thing, yeah, definitely. Maybe the “Army” is more like a subsection of fandom? That there are random unorganised fans here and there, and then an organised movement who takes inspiration from RA and so on. But then again, maybe it’s also partially due to the fans he has attracted so far? We might be fangirls, but we’re sort of … mature and laid back about it.
I think it varies. Blogs have a set of unwritten rules of conduct, Tumble is more wacky and most rules are suspended. I can see us as one big group, because most people frequent different places of RA worship 🙂 Any journalist worth his salt would have done his / her research and found out that we’re about so much more. Then again, that would be beside the point and not worthy of their time. RA has drawn such a mixed bag, but it’s true that I mostly see educated women, out of their teens, well travelled, with a love for reading. It’s nice, because I like what that says about me LOL!
I wonder what the new batch post Hobbit will bring. I’m optimistic that not many hormonal teens will find their way within our group, or feel comfortable here. The nuts will descend, of course, but that’s to be expected. And I do mean the: ‘where does he live? how can I get ahold of his toenail clippings? he loves me and no one else, I know him better than anyone else, we’re meant to be together’ type of ‘admirers’. Should be interesting 🙂
I am hoping that, just as people are pleasantly surprised to discover I was born and raised in Alabama and managed NOT to turn out to be an illiterate racist redneck 😉 people who meet me at Comic-Con and discover I am an RA fan will also come away with a positive impression. We shall see.
Those “toenail clipping and I KNOW the mind of Richard Armitage inside and out and we are destined to be as one” kind of people are SOOOO not what this fandom has been about thus far for me, and i’ve been in it for a while now, so I will be curious how many Nuttie-Buddies we take on in the coming months. Yeah, I feel pretty chuffed to be a part of a community of intelligent, well-read, creative, witty people.
I’ve learned not to judge books by covers, both online and in RL. I’ve only ever been upset once in our little community. Some reader posted a homophobic comment, and to my horror, it was seconded by the blogger herself. It made me realize that not all Americans are tolerant and accepting, but then, why would they be? We come from all corners of the world, and there are all sorts. I guess the most we can achieve is to let each other be.
I can only remember coming across one person who was..intense within our community. This is no place for personal attacks and bullying, and I think this person got the message. I’m all for freedom of speech and the right to voice your opinion, but there’s no excuse for being rude.
Luckily, our community is good at being respectful, and that’s one of our best features. That, and the fact that we kick a*se on a regular basis 🙂
There is one individual I can think of who attempts to intimidate, bully and force her views on others. I find myself thinking, “Lady, do you really think the man about which you claim to be such an expert would approve of your behavior?” I think he’d find it detestable. I thank the good Lord I’ve only run across one of her in the fan community. You have to ignore this person as much as possible because she feeds on trying to pick fights and stir up trouble.
And yeah, you will find certain narrow-minded individuals here and, I suppose, everywhere else. I just try to abide by my own conscience and the good manners my mama tried to instil in me. 😉
We all live by our own set of rules, and I hope some common sense 🙂 I have to remind myself that people end up here for different reasons. Some are so frustrated with their lives, depressed and generally unhappy, it gives them odd pleasure to put other people down. I feel sorry for them, what else can you do?
I am a compassionate person and I can feel sorry for them up to a point; but when they actively try to cause real trouble for someone–and that’s happened to me–then I have NO tolerance. I can’t realy say any more than that here.
I understand and agree. I’m sorry it has happened to you, but I have a feeling you’re the sort of no nonsense type of lady, and you coped with the matter in a swift fashion 🙂 As long as we stand up for each other and don’t turn a blind eye to bullying, I think we’ll be just fine.I’ve actually started feeling quite protective of some higher profile people within our community. They seem to be drawing bullets for no logical reason but the spite of others. All I can say is: Not on my watch! 🙂
LOL I just hate bullies and I’ve reached an age when I am not going to put up with that kind of behavior. Malice and spite are so unnecessary. As you say, good people drawing bullets for no logical reason other than just plain meanness. We aren’t in junior high anymore, people. 😉
What’s strange about this arrangement we have going, is that although we are anonymous, it’s always personal. Meaning behind every screen there a human being. It is possible to hurt someone’s feelings, just as much as a kind word can make someone’s day. By the way, if this were junior high, we’d be the popular girls like in Grease 🙂
Some people believe that cloak of anonymity on the internet should allow them to behave in really uncivil ways. That it’s OK to behave badly because “nobody knows who I am.” People say things online they would never have the guts or gall to say to someone face to face. Which kinda sorta makes them cowards as well as bullies.
It’s great to be one of the cool kids. 😉
By the way, regarding Comic-Con, I love the fact that, in the opinion of our group, you are going there only to stake out RA ;)No doubt it will be the highlight of the event (I’m not even thinking that you won’t!). Have fun! This really is an amazing opportunity, and I hope we’ll get the scoop as soon as you can post! I’m sure you’ll represent the RArmy very well, and being a fan of his is an honour, as he’s such a lovely man AND a great actor. Wear your RA badge will pride!
Indeed. I just hope, for RA’s sake, that the nutters are few, and that the vast majority are nice, level-headed people. 🙂
Judging by that last Miami Vice Thorin picture, I think that dwarfs are about to become the new pin up boys! We’ll have dwarf nude calanders, they will be on those mugs where you have an image of a dressed hottie, but when you pour hot water into it, the picture turns into an undressed hottie 😉 That’s bound to produce a nut or three! I mean, look at us here in RA reality! We’ve actually been discussing the sexiness of dwarfs. DWARFS! What has it all come to? What’s next? Attractive goblins and ogres?
LOL!
Hahaha….rzeczywiście wygląda na to że od grudnia Ryś będzie podróżować pierwszą klasą….tak teraz już widać wyrażnie gdzie widzi naszego Ryśka sir Peter Jackson!….jestem pewna że Aidan chciałby być z nimi ale trudno…se trzeba poczekać;) Jest piękny i młody-doczeka się:D
Też sobie pomyślałam że chłopak jeszcze ma czas by wkraść się w nasze sny! Ale skoro nie leci do San Diego, to proponuję by przyleciał do na post Euro, jeszcze jeden Irlandczyk nie zawadzi, a od razy na ulicach ładniej będzie. A konkurancja tu żadna!
😀 Prawde rzekłaś o Pani!…ŻADNA!!!