I live in Finland, so I don't have much experience from movie premieres, but I thought: "what the heck, this could be fun!". I've been reading MTF site for some time now and I wanted to meet some of my favorite actors! I've always been a huge fan of the Lord Of The Rings -movies and starting to grow quite fond with the new The Hobbit -movies because of their superior Extended Editions. Seriously guys, you should check them out if you saw the Theatrical Cuts!
When I heard that the world premiere of the final Hobbit (which is also the final movie set to Middle-Earth) would be in London and cast members from all 6 Middle-Earth films (LoTR & Hobbit) would be invited, I gave it a thought and booked the flights from Finland to London! I have to say that I was very, very nervous! Going alone to this adventure was a true leap of faith.
I arrived to London on Saturday 5pm local time. I checked into the hostel I had booked and went off to Leicester Square, where the Premiere was going to be held. I assumed that there'd be a couple of fans waiting but the queue I saw was tremendous! Huge! I quickly ran back to hotel, got my stuff (warm clothes, rations etc.) and headed back to the Square.
At this point I'd like to point out, that a couple of days before Warner Bros. had announced that to attend the Premiere's red carpet event, you must have a wristband, which were going to be given on Sunday on "first come, first served" -basis. The first ones on the queue had been there since Wednesday night. OMG! I landed on queue number 226 eventually.
Night passed and 12 hours later I had acquired a wristband! I was the king of the world! And trust me, it had been a loooong night!
I spent my Sunday in London's heart sightseeing London and looking for celebs to bump into ;)
I was really fortunate to see Benedict Cumberbatch before the Premiere since he was attending 60th London Theater Awards. He signed to alot of people and I was one of the lucky ones to get his autograph to my "The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug" mini poster! A good start before the Premiere
Monday arrived. Fans started queueing since 11am and we were let in around 3pm. The setup was amazing! The stage was built like it was the Dol Guldur and screens were showing The Hobbit promotion pictures etc. A fan boy from Finland was ready for the action!
We got our spots from the first row but more further down than what we had hoped. The clock was ticking. Excitement among the fans was stirring! The music started playing...
..and here... we... go.
The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies was now on. We got to see the trailer and a sneak peek from the film itself. This was all streaming to over 150 countries and can be found on Youtube, I suppose.
The first to arrive was Sylvester McCoy, who plays Radagast the Brown. Because we were "behind a corner", we had to watch most of the action from the big screen, so we had to rely on it to see who had arrived etc.
Next came Jed Brophy, who plays Nori the Dwarf. I mean, he signed alot! He went through all the fans, did autographs and photos and was super nice! Signed my mini poster and got a photo with him!
Next came John Bell, who plays Bain in the last two Hobbit films. A young actor and he was super nice as well! Signed got a photo and went on.
After the first hour the cast was everywhere! Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Sir Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom, Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman, Billy Boyd, Benedict Cumberbatch, James Nesbitt, Adam Brown, Aidan Turner, Manu Bennett and the lovely writer/producer of the Hobbit films, Philippa Boyens! There were couple of moments when the whole premiere was a huge clusterf**k, cast on your left and right going this and that way!
The ones must've done all the fans were Martin, Richard, Lee, Ian, Andy and Luke. I had such a great time! I mean these guys were just so great! Especially Sir Ian. He's getting older and older but he still had energy to go over all the fans and sign. Even though his signature was just Gandalf's symbol, I still respect him very much. I thanked him for all the work he has done and he was so pleased that he posed a photo with me!
Because we were so far off from the point where the cast members where dropped off, we didn't get Benedict, Orlando or Evangeline. Neither did Sylvester come to us. Also the director himself, Pete Jackson, only walked by us and waved as he strolled to the Odeon Cinema. Also I missed Stephen Fry and Ryan Cage and Ed Sheeran, who was a guest at this Premiere.
So far I had the time of my life! But then I started thinking: "Where are all the guests from the LoTR -films?".
The press release had said that all were invited. But where were they?
The only one I saw was Mr. Bernard Hill (He signed a couple of autographs but I didn't get him.), who played King Theoden in the Two Towers and Return Of The King. That's it. No Viggo, no John Rhys-Davies, no Karl Urban, no Dominic Monaghan, no Elijah Wood or Sean Asti or Sean Bean. Even Cate Blanchett was not attending to my disappointment, even though she is in the newest film.
Plus all the Kiwi dwarf actors (minus Jed Brophy) were missing from this Premiere.
Warner Bros. didn't handle this one well. This was the final chance for fans of Middle-Earth to see their beloved cast together again, but no.
That being said it was a blast!
After the Premiere the security personnel hurried us away from the red carpet and I decided to go to the location where the after party of the Premiere was being held. There were some autograph dealers there, which I learned to hate, but managed to get autographs from Evangeline Lilly, Billy Boyd, Manu Bennett, Aidan Turner and Martin Freeman! Also I got the perfect photo with Martin OMG!
Plus I met Amanda Abbington, Martin's wife, who also is in the Sherlock -series! She was super nice, signed my autograph book and took a photo with me! We chatted for a moment and she went on her way!
The final person I saw wasn't from The Hobbit films. He was Derren Brown, a British illusionist. I'm a huge fan of Derren's work and he has done some of the most mindblowing stage shows I've ever seen. He was super impressed that I had come from Finland and signed my autograph book and took a bunch of photos with him! He was super cool and we talked for like 10 minutes! I was so happy that I just started weeping!
So happy for you 
