To coincide with a set visit report, AintItCoolNews has released this first look at Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins on the set of Peter Jackson’s eagerly anticipated two-part “The Hobbit” movie adaptation. Both Hobbit films are set in Middle-earth 60 years before J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” which Jackson and his film-making team brought to the big screen in the fantastic blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar-winning ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.’ ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ has been pencilled in for a December 14th, 2012 release date. ‘The Hobbit: There and Back Again’ will hit cinemas December 13th, 2013. Check out an excerpt from the set report below.

“What’s Frodo doing in The Hobbit? I don’t want to spoil too much, but I can say that Frodo is part of the connecting tissue between The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring.

In fact, the next shot was an over the shoulder on Elijah Wood hammering a sign up on Bag End’s front gate: “No Admittance Except On Party Business.” You guys should have an idea where that puts this moment in the timeline.

Martin Freeman stood in for Ian Holm, who shot all of his scenes and close-ups in London. They would sometimes play footage they’ve already shot to remind themselves of what they had done previously and to help them match up shots. Peter and crew did that for these reverse shots on Elijah and I got to see Ian as Bilbo once again. It was quite extraordinary, actually. Seeing Ian in close up, wearing the wig, the vest and the pointy ears just put a smile on my face.”

Reprising their roles from “The Lord of the Rings” movies alongside Elijah Wood are Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Orlando Bloom as Legolas, Ian Holm as the elder Bilbo, Christopher Lee as Saruman, Hugo Weaving as Elrond, and Andy Serkis as Gollum.  The ensemble cast includes the likes of Martin Freeman, who’s taking on the central role of Bilbo Baggins, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Bret McKenzie, Graham McTavish, Mike Mizrahi, James Nesbitt, Dean O’Gorman, Lee Pace, Mikael Persbrandt, Conan Stevens, Ken Stott, Jeffrey Thomas, Luke Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch and Aidan Turner.

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New Zealand will be the site of the world premiere for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” in November, 2012.

Producer/director Peter Jackson and Prime Minister John Key made the announcement Friday at the Hobbiton set in Waikato. The city of Wellington served as the host of the world premiere of the “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” in December, 2003.

“I think Warner Bros in particular were blown away by the ‘Return of the King’ premiere,” Jackson said at the news conference. “No one in the international industry could quite believe how the country got behind that.”

Warner Bros. has set Dec. 14, 2012 for the release of the first of the two “Hobbit” pics.

Jackson began shooting the two films in New Zealand in 3D in mid-March with a cast including Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Andy Serkis, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen and Cate Blanchett reprising their roles from “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

J.R.R. Tolkien novel is set 60 years before “Lord of the Rings,” with Bilbo the unassuming Hobbit who becomes a hero by obtaining a powerful ring in the face of challenges by the wicked Gollum and a dragon named Smaug.

The screenplays are penned by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson. Jackson is also producing the films, together with Fran Walsh and Carolynne Cunningham; exec producers are Ken Kamins and Zane Weiner, with Philippa Boyens serving as co-producer.

New Line parent Warner Bros. reached a deal in January to handle worldwide distribution on “The Hobbit,” taking over most international distribution and homevideo on the two films from MGM in exchange for funding MGM’s half of the production costs.

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We caught up with Eljiah Wood at his campaign launch with Bushmills Whiskey to chat about his hit FX series Wilfred, what’s on his iPod and so much more. He even let us in on some of his DJ’ing skills! Check it out!

Starpulse: Tell me all about this partnership with Bushmills Whiskey.

Elijah Wood: I was sort of impressed with the simplicity of the campaign, the fact that it wasn’t overly celebrity driven and really a wide array of creative individuals. And just tying it into that notion of friendship and that also being complimentary into the brand itself—you know Bushmills has been around for over 400 years. It was made in a small town of Ireland, the town of Bushmills and it has been a labor of love for those people, for that long. It just felt like a beautiful thing to be part of. It felt really transparent, I think. Integrity is really important to me, I think I’m often turned off by advertising, and turned off by endorsements, especially if there’s something that doesn’t make sense for that individual and is not organic to that individual. This just felt so organic, I love black and white photography, and I love what it’s all about.

SP: Well they’re also taking the creative aspect of music and collaborating with that. Isn’t Chromeo also involved in this project?

EW: That’s correct and Theophilus London.

SP: Oh he’s sick! Are you guys all friends?

EW: I’ve actually never met the Chromeo guys or Theophilus London. I’m a huge fan. I don’t know if Bushmills can put us all together and we can have one master event because it’d be great to meet those guys; I’m a big fan of their work.

SP: Do you have a dream collaborator? Being a DJ/Producer is quite the hot commodity right now, especially in the top 40 realm, so what’re you thinking about that?

EW: Sure… I don’t know. I mean, for me, DJ’ing is really about being in an environment where I’m playing music that I love and it isn’t really so much about song writing or creating original music. It’s really just about being in a place like this and loving what I’m playing and letting other people enjoy it as well. Dream collaborators just in general? I don’t know. It would probably be some director or actor that I’d love to work with.

SP: Ok, so focused more on acting.

EW: Yes; or just filmmaking in general. I’m such a huge fan of film and the whole process. Even if I could produce something with a producer that I am a huge fan of, that would be amazing to me.

SP: Speaking of acting, high-five! Second season of Wilfred, congratulations!

EW: (High fives) Thanks!

The real highlight of this year’s card was an epic bust-up between two former co-stars: Elijah Wood andDominic Monaghan of “The Lord of the Rings” fame going toe-to-hairy-toe to settle the matter of whether World of Warcraft is a complete waste of time. Call it: The Beatdown in Hobbiton.

This one wasn’t even close; Monaghan really did throw old Frodo a beatdown. In the debate portion of the evening, he outed himself a serious WoW nerd, sharing stories of dungeoning as an undead warlock and being seduced by a woman who was really a guy named Dave. When they put on the gloves, Monaghan pummeled his buddy with some serious shots to the face and body, even cutting Wood below the eye. Reportedly Monaghan’s trainers had to tell him to ease up a little, but I guess some long simmering animosity over that precious ring finally exploded in the squared circle.

Here’s a highlight reel of the evening produced by Erik Horn and Gates Bradley.

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