First video blog from “The Hobbit” set

When “The Hobbit” first experienced production woes and Guillermo Del Toro left the project and MGM seemingly went up in flames, talk about “The Hobbit” became perfunctory and in my opinion, the project lost a bit of its grandeur. Now, Peter Jackson has released the first video blog from New Zealand, continuing what at the time of the original trilogy was a ground-breaking behind-the-scene peak of a film as it was in production. If you want to smile like a giddy fantasy geek again, watch this ten-minute featurette.

I don’t normally promote things like this as I’m always afraid of learning more than I want to about a film, but seeing a full crew in high gear for making another movie set in Middle Earth is so exciting and definitely a bit nostalgic. You can tell how surreal it is for Peter Jackson too and how he basically admits to being stupid for not wanting to direct this project for the longest time.

The video takes us through some pre-production including Bag End and Rivendale sets, costume prep, mo-cap filming and more. The more you know about “The Hobbit,” the more goodies you will pick up on as you watch. The video concludes with an official New Zealand Mayori welcome from the New Zealand-based crew to those who flew in and needless to say, it’s cool to see this crew start a collective process that will last months on end but we know will result in a terrific-looking movie that we get to enjoy.

“The Hobbit Part I” comes out in December 2012.

Watch the video blog here!