As we previously reported, Lee’s been featured in the August issue of Empire (on newsstands now). The 13 pages long article takes us to New Zealand, which is currently full of dwarfs, elves and hobbits. The cast is slowly wrapping though. Peter Jackson yesterday shared on his facebook: “A day after saying goodbye to Gandalf and Tauriel, it was time to farewell Legolas. What a great day it was, with Orlando battling a serious Orc for all 12 hours of shooting – part of the Battle of the 5 Armies for the third Hobbit movie.”
The article also features the first The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug promotional image of Lee Pace as Thranduil, posing with a sword that has been made from a single piece of metal, with the handle carved into it.

Jackson tells Empire that “Thranduil has a contempt of his own for what is going on out there.”
“The delightful Lee Pace welcomes Empire into his trailer with a warm smile, high praise for the magazine’s ongoing coverage of The Hobbit and the offer of herbal tea,” Empire shares. Lee told them he sees Legolas’ father as “the same way that a tiger in a jungle is a dangerous thing” and admitted he has taken overnight hikes into the New Zealand wildness to get into an elven headspace. “In his realm, you are at his mercy,” he muses. “There is a simplicity to that. That corrupted forest (Mirkwood) is very much a reflection of who he is.” Talking about his inspirations, has called upon Oberon and The Fisher King.
“We should mention he is 3,000 years old,” Empire reminds us, “something of a mind-bogging concept for Pace.” The actor who plays the Elvenking comments: “He’s incredibly old but incredibly sensitive. It’s like he’s taken too many naps.”
“And yet he has a reputation of being the greatest fighter in the Middle Earth. His threat, thinks Pace, imposes interesting things on this movie. “He doesn’t readily choose to use his force.” The question arises of what will stir him out of his splendid, dragon-like isolation,” the journalist nicely concludes.

As Orlando Bloom says: “The elves always steal the show. In the best way.”

Gallery Link:
Magazine Scans > Empire (August 2013)

“You are going to get some serious disrespect of the elves at Rivendell,” Peter Jackson warns Hobbit fans. The extended version of the first Hobbit movie, An Unexpected Journey, is due for release on Blu-ray and DVD just a month before the sequel comes out. The director tells Empire he is now editing and leaving some scenes out of the theatrical cut, since people don’t need to worry about them, but they will be shown in the detailed version. “We are putting things in the extended cut that are going to play straight into the second film,” Jackson explains, “like this character Girion, who is defending [the city of] Dale using black arrows against Smaug. And the black arrows play a part in the ongoing story, for they are the one thing that can pierce the dragon’s hide.” This will now be seen in the extended prologue, with Girion’s badly aimed black arrows bouncing off Smaug’s scales rather than puncturing his underbelly. “The are also issues with Thranduil [played by Lee Pace],” adds Jackson. “We get some of the reasons why he and the dwarfs had a falling out – to do with these white gems…” We will learn from the elves’ perspective, why they didn’t come to the dwarves’ aid.
“It’s unique,” concludes the director on having his story operate on two levels. “Not many other movies have this facility.”

The August issue of Empire hits shops on Thursday June 27. You can find the first scans of it in our gallery.

Lee Pace and his The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug co-stars Evangeline Lilly and Orlando Bloom cover the August issue of Empire magazine. The article offers more insights into the trilogy’s key second instalment, filming process and more.

The second cover is the collector’s edition and will only be available for subscribers.

The August issue of Empire hits shops on Thursday June 27.

GALLERY LINKS:
– Magazine Scans > Empire (August 2013)

Kili and Fili of TheOneRing.net recorded themselves watching the Desolation of Smaug trailer for the first time. Few days ago, Peter Jackson asked three of the cast members to watch the fan reactions, and recorded their reaction.

We can now confirm that Lee Pace joined the cast in New Zealand, where they are currently filming pick ups for the final two Hobbit films, Desolation of Smaug and There and Back Again.

Desolation of Smaug opens in theaters December 13.

The first official poster for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has been released. The movie is coming to theaters December 13, 2013.

Exciting news, Lee fans! Lee Pace is in final negotiations to play the villain in Disney and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the Wrap reports. Not much is known about his role, but we do know that Guardians of the Galaxy follows a group of alien superheroes as they protect the solar system from an evil alien race.
The cast currently features Chris Pratt as Star Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, WWE star Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer and Michael Rooker as Yondu. Ophelia Lovibond will also co-star in an unknown supporting role.

Last week, Peter Jackson hosted a Q&A you could only watch if you had purchased the ‘Unexpected Journey’ Blu-Ray and entered a code from the DVD package. In the Q&A, Jackson takes questions from fans, including Stephen Colbert and actor Billy Boyd and shows off some behind-the-scenes footage which features Lee Pace as Thranduil, Orlando Bloom as Legolas, Evangeline Lily as the elf archer Tauriel and Luke Evans as the human Bard the Bowman. The Hobbit director commented: “The great thing about the second [‘Hobbit’] movie — as it was with the ‘Two Towers’ actually — is that the stories start splitting up into multiple story lines and we can follow different characters as the story intensifies and the stakes go up”. One of those story lines, as you can tell from the footage, will be the introduction of the elves from Mirkwood.

“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” opens later this year on December 13th.

Source

Lee has been jogging with James on his last day of Golden Age play. They’ve been running across the Central park and discussing his fans, [Golden Age] play and movies. When asked about apparently preferring theatre to film and TV given his continual penchant for the stage, Pace enthusiastically states, “I don’t know – I just like to work!” but he admits that, “There is nothing better than doing a play in New York. It becomes, like, a really interesting chapter in your life,” and described acting as “A weird job – a really weird job.” Lee and James also discussed Mr. Pace’s Lincoln character and his Breakng Dawn part. Lee revealed that many Twihard fans came to see his play and told: “I just appreciate that Twilight really does bring a community of people together.”
James also gave Lee Oprah, Martha Stewart, and Queen Elizabeth II to choose between in Marry, Shag, Throw off a Cliff game. Watch the video bellow to see his answer.

From Deadline:

Lee Pace is set as a lead of AMC‘s drama pilot Halt & Catch Fire, from Breaking Bad executive producer Mark Johnson. Also starring in the pilot, written by Chris Cantwell and Chris Rogers, is Mackenzie Davis (Breathe In). Juan José Campanella is set to direct. Set in the early 1980s, Halt & Catch Fire dramatizes the personal computing boom through the eyes of a Mackenzie Davisvisionary, an engineer and a prodigy whose innovations directly confront the corporate behemoths of the time. Their personal and professional partnership will be challenged by greed and ego while charting the changing culture in Texas’ Silicon Prairie.

TVline reports Lee will play confident and powerful Joe, the smartest guy in the room who is two steps ahead of both his allies and his enemies. Once a superstar salesman at IBM, Joe recently departed under mysterious circumstances only to resurface at a Dallas tech company called Cardiff Giant. It’s here that he demonstrates an ability to masterfully seize control, even as his demons continuously threaten to rear up at the most inopportune times.