Benedict Cumberbatch donned a motion capture suit to play the dragon Smaug in the second chapter of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy. A behind the scenes clip from the extended Blu-ray & DVD edition of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug featuring the Sherlock actor at work has been released online.
Jackson explained that when he was casting the role of Smaug he didn’t just want someone to do a standard voice performance. “We wanted someone who would do something original, unexpected… Something that was a surprise to us.”
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is available on Blu-ray and DVD from November 3. Smaug will return in the final chapter of The Hobbit trilogy. The Battle of the Five Armies is released in cinema December 12.
Watch Cumberbatch in his motion capture suit in the video below.
The Star Trek Into Darkness villain’s latest film The Imitation Game opened the London Film Festival earlier this month. It is based on the true story of mathematicians working to crack the German Enigma code. Alan Turing (Cumberbatch) led a team who developed a machine which decoded intercepted Nazi messages allowing the Allies to hasten the end of the war and save thousands of lives. The film is released in cinemas November 14.