It’s not a secret that The Hobbit is one of the most anticipated films coming out this year. While we wait for it to be relased Peter Jackson and company have been kind enough to share some making of and behind the scenes videos with us.

A new one has arrived and it’s pretty cool. This one is a tour of the New Zealand sets where the movie is being made and shows some of the actors at work.

This is another in a series of videos that helps people understand all that goes into the making of giant spectacles like Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Let’s hope it helps build the appreciation for all the work that goes into them and all the people, especially those not in the spotlight, who do that work.

Check out the video after the break.

For those who thought this weekend would be a relapse into the mid 1980s with the Footloose remake and reboot/prequel of The Thing, they should have taken into account how awesome gigantic, fighting robots are.

That’s right, after receiving mixed reviews for the first week of the film’s release, Real Steel managed to steal the #1 spot once again, bringing in $16.3 million for the weekend, and a total worldwide gross of $73.8 million so far. Not totally unexpected for a movie starring Wolverine, Evangeline Lilly, AND robots.

Taking the #2 and #3 spots this weekend were the send-offs to the 1980s. Paramount’s Footloose pulled in $16.1, just inches behind the #1 spot, where as the prequel/reboot venture of The Thing from Universal managed to underwhelm audiences and only make $8.7 million.

Finally, the indie comedy The Big Year, starring Jack Black, Owen Wilson, and Steve Martin just squeaked into the top 10 with $$3.3 million. Hard to believe the film made that much considering the complete lack of a marketing strategy Fox made for it.

Peter Jackson has never been too shy to allow cameras to document the behind the scenes machinations of the Lord of the Rings franchise. The original trilogy had hundreds of hours of special features dedicated to the creation of the popular film franchise.

Now with The Hobbit in full swing the tradition continues. Jackson has just released his third production diary, this time focusing on the recently revealed dwarves. The diary itself is structured around cast and crews favorite memories of the first block of shooting, but thigs quickly develop into a dwarf love fest. It is clear that diminutive stars of the film are quickly becoming the life of the sets.

Besides the dwarves, the diary also showcases a few quick tidbits that will make any ringer giddy. We see more of the “Riddles in the Dark” scene, including some decent angles of Martin Freeman in full costume and Gollum in his mo cap suit. Elrond, Gandalf and Galadrial show up to tease a certain council meeting and there’s a father son reunion of Gimili and Gloin.

Finally the diary ends on a wonderful surprise that I refuse to ruin for you, but suffice to say it is a comforting sight to see.

Check out all three of the first diaries after the jump. The Hobbit arrives in theaters in 2012.

While this past week had a few fun trailers, unfortunately there wasn’t anything that I’m going to be waiting in line opening night to see.  It seems that we have fully transitioned out of the exciting summer films and are now getting prepared for the mediocre releases that didn’t quite make the summer block.

This week we have a couple big budget films that I feel obligated to talk about, a couple smaller indies I’m a little more excited for, and — Moon Nazis!

Real Steel

Click to see the trailer

There was an early teaser that came out for this last year, but this is the first chance that we really get to see the story of this film.  On one level you instantly want to dismiss this film as “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots: The Movie,” sure to be filled with terrible dialogue and cheesy one-liners.  But on another level you hope that this interesting premise might actually turn out to be a fresh take on inspiring boxing films.

Hugh Jackman (X-Men, The Prestige) is usually pretty decent in whatever he does, but who I would be most interested to see is Evangeline Lilly in this role, who is most famous as Kate from Lost.  Although she was in The Hurt Locker for a bit, this will definitely be her biggest step into features.

While part of me is excited to see some fun robot violence, I feel ultimately this film has to disappoint.  Everyone is going to be expecting Transformers quality CGI, but there is no way they had the budget to pull that off.  And, I get the feeling that people are going to want this film to have more heart that it will end up having.

As we do often, we’ve got another trailer to share with you today. That’s one of the cool things about Hollywood, they’ve always got another movie to promote and there’s always a new trailer to watch and maybe even enjoy.

Case in point today is a brand new one for Reel Steel starring Hugh jackman and some battling robots. DreamWorks has released a new trailer for the movie and in this one we get to see more of Jackman in action, more fighting robots and, unfortunately, more of the “human story” as well. Sorry, the kid is a bit annoying.

I know the movie can’t be two hours of robots kicking the crap out of each other but at least they could have found a slightly more appealing kid to play, well, the kid. Hey, its probably not as bad as we think it is.

Judge for yourself and check out the trailer after the jump. Reel Steel punches its way into theaters on October 7th.

In case you’ve been living under a rock or, perhaps, on an island somewhere, you are probably aware that ABC’s Lost finally came to a conclusion last night. The show’s series finale met with a whole range of feelings, opinions and emotions which is often the case when shows with a rabid and outspoken fan base come to an end.

Whatever your feeling about the ending, audiences everywhere most likely will have their own opinions and would offer their own alternative scenarios as to how the ending should have gone. The shows executive producers, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, are no exception. Even though they finally settled on an ending for the show, they also had several alternative endings in mind prior to making their final decision.

Fortunately, through the miracles of modern technology and The Jimmy Kimmel Show, we are able to bring you those alternative ending right here. So, sit back, relax and experience what might have been after the jump.

With ABC’s highly complicated, occasionally contrived but always entertaining series LOST only a few episodes away form its series finale, it appears the show’s producers have more to say as the end grows near then they thought. So, to facilitate that, they have asked ABC to extend the series finale’s running time by an additional thirty minutes. The network has agreed, which brings the show to two and a half hours.

According to the report, when the LOST finale airs on Sunday, May 23rd, the episode will run from 9 to 11:30 PM, which will push back the news and have the “Jimmy Kimmel Live: Aloha to Lost” post-finale special airing at 12:05 a.m. Executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof just completed post-production on the finale — titled “The End” — on Monday night.

As is the custom these days, at the end both sent out identical Tweets: “We’re done. Amen.” In addition, Lindelof recently commented that the crew build all-new sets for the finale and promised the ending would prompt more questions.

ABC is pulling out all the stops to celebrate the ending of one of its most popular shows. In addition the the “super-sized” finale, the network is airing an “enhanced” version of the show’s original two-hour pilot on May 22. Then on Sunday the 23rd, there’s a two-hour retrospective titled “Lost: The Final Journey,” followed by the finale, then the local news and Kimmel post-show. That’s a lot of LOST.

Still, it’s nice to see the network taking the time and giving a show like LOST the opportunity to end its run gracefully. Sure, when the end does finally come, people may have more questions then answers. After all, this is LOST. But really, even if we do, isn’t that part of the fun?

May might not be the month for premiers of amazing shows, but there is something that May always brings us: amazing, shocking, mind-blowing season (or in the case of many, series) finales. This month on Cortney’s TV Digest, we’ve got the end of some of our favorite shows, the continuation of some of tv’s biggest and brightest, and one new show you’re really going to need to watch.

Lost

As heartbreaking as it may be that one of our most beloved and mind-blowing television shows will be coming to an end this May, ABC has a full five hours of programming on the night of Lost‘s finale. There will be a two-hour retrospective on the series prior to the two-hour finale at 9 PM, and then a special “Jimmy Kimmel Live” right after in honor of the show.

We don’t know much yet about Lost‘s upcoming finale episode, only that is is titled “The End” and will be airing on a special night, Sunday the 23rd. Curiously, the number 23 is one of Lost‘s infamous numbers, and if you’ve been keeping up with the show this season, you’ll remember 23 corresponds with one of the candidates written on the ceiling of the cave. Whatever this means will be revealed later this month when Lost finally comes to an end.

Is there anyone more excited for the beginning of the final season of LOST than me? Probably, but not by many. Now you can see the first four minutes of the upcoming premiere of Season Six, thanks to our friends at Coming Soon. This time we begin as most seasons do: with Jack waking up and being confused as to where he is or what’s happening.

We also see Juliet banging on the bomb until it blows. We then cut back to….wait a minute, is that Season One?! Only, well, you’ll see in the clip. Here’s hoping that the new season delivers, answers a lot of the questions we’ve all had (like “What does Dharma Initiative Ranch Dressing taste like?”), and hopefully leaves us asking new questions that will make us miss the show when it ends this year, without feeling ripped off.

Check out the rest of the clip after the jump. (Spoilers for the end of Season Five, in case you are the one person not caught up yet.) and be sure to catch the rest of the premiere on ABC, Tuesday February 2nd, at 8PM.

With the final season of Lost set to premiere next week on ABC, fans of the show are obviously wondering what will happen to their favorite characters and probably have a lot of other questions. Will they ever get off the island? Did the explosion at the end of last season kill anyone or everyone? What is the smoke monster? Will Jack and Kate ever be together? Will Sawyer get a haircut?

These ,and more more, will finally be answered in the sixth and final season of Lost — at least according to promises made by the producers. In the meantime to get you primed for the show’s return, we’ve got five new clips that will hopefully entertain and maybe even answer some of those burining questions.

Oh, who am I kidding? These clips will just add even more questions to the list. We won’t know any real answers until the very last minute. But that’s okay because that’s what makes Lost such a great show — it keeps you guessing.

Lost returns to ABC next Tuesday at 9/8C. In the meantime, check out the five new video clips from the show after the jump.