The Hobbit behind-the-scenes books just get better and better.
It follows on from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Art & Design and Creatures and Characters chronicles, and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles – Art & Design chronicles. This installment includes a foreword from The Hobbit actress Evangeline Lilly, who portrayed Tauriel in Smaug.
Book review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles – Art & Design
As the title makes clear, Cloaks & Daggers is concerned with the amazing costumes and props used to create The Hobbit films. There might be a lot of visual effects in the films, but don’t let that deceive you – literally thousands of hours have gone into producing everything else you see on screen, and many things that didn’t make it to screen.
The book is filled with luscious photographs, and although it is structured like a coffee table book, it is not light on text either. The book is divided into ten main sections, with each one dedicated to a different group in Middle Earth (hobbits, wizards, and Thorin’s company, to name but three). Each section explores every detail of the costumes and props relating to that group, with accompanying photographs and interviews.
In many behind-the-scenes books, readers gravitate towards the sections that feature interviews with the actors – those being the names that they recognise. And certainly, the Hobbit actors have insights to contribute. But this book really celebrates the craftspeople who worked so tirelessly on these films, and those are the people you want to hear from. Luckily, the author recognises this, and so that is where the focus is placed.
This is not a book for a reader with a passing interest – it for the die-hard fans (of either The Hobbit, or simply the movie-making process). And for those readers, Cloaks & Daggers is a smorgasbord; simply a treasure trove of delights and insights.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Cloaks & Daggers by Daniel Falconer is out now through HarperCollins.