With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows wrapping up that franchise this week, it’s nice to be reminded that there’s more epic fantasy following it shortly next year. Peter Jackson, whose first installment of the Rings trilogy followed the first Potter movie by a month, has just released his second video diary for The Hobbit. Celebrating the first finished block of a massive 254 day shoot (covering both of the planned films), Jackson and his second-unit director (Andy Serkis, who also does the mo-cap work for Gollum) sit down and discuss what’s happened so far. There’s the crew talking about the film, Jackson trudging through New Zealand with a cup of tea and the return of a noticeable paunch. You also get to see them location shoot via helicopter.

All of this does the intended trick of getting one excited for the upcoming films,provided of course you are still interested in Jackson as a director and/or The Hobbit. I’m a fan of both and am hoping that Jackson not only captures the magic of the first go-round again (his work since hasn’t been as up-to-snuff) but gets enough of this big-budget bug out of his system, that he’s ready to go back and give us some manic craziness like Brain Dead or low-key creepiness like Heavenly Creatures.

Most of all, Im just looking forward to enjoying the promos, the set pics, and general ride of witnessing a new Tolkien adaptation come together via such a talented and passionate team of people. And anticipating that moment where the lights go down and the world of Middle Earth once again springs to life.

Follow this link to the second of Jackson’s posted video diaries.

Until then, we will have to settle for stuff like this; new pics of the team of dwarves that meet Bilbo at Bag End, recruiting him to journey with them to the Lonely Mountain to reclaim their gold from the dragon Smaug.

In the first pic below we have the brother trio of Dori, Ori and Nori. The promo materials have this to say about the motley crew:

These three brothers, all sons of the same mother, could not be more different from each other. Dori, the oldest, spends much of his time watching out for Ori, the youngest; making sure he’s not caught a chill or got himself killed by Wargs or Goblins. Nobody quite knows what Nori gets up to most of the time, except that it’s guaranteed to be dodgy and quite probably, illegal. Dori, Nori and Ori are intensely loyal to each other – and whilst they are perfectly happy fighting amongst themselves, woe-betide anyone who means harm to one of these brothers.

Then there’s Oin and Gloin, played by John Callen and Peter Hambleton. Gloin is the father of Gimli, the heroic dwarf from the first trilogy, played there by John Rhys-Davies.

Distant cousins of Thorin Oakenshield, these two doughty Northern Dwarves join the Company out of a sense of loyalty to their kin, and also because they have a substantial sum of money invested in the venture. Along with Bombur, Gloin is the only other married Dwarf in the Company (there being a shortage of female dwarves in general). His wife is an acclaimed beauty with a particularly fine beard. Gloin is the proud father of a young son, Gimli, who will go on to become part of the famous Fellowship of the Ring.