Last week, Smaug got out of his cave and took a small vacation to Los Angeles, which also was just in time to celebrate the premiere of Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. But how did he get there exactly? Well, the famed dragon teamed up with Air New Zealand of course, and flew across the Pacific, where he was welcomed at LAX airport by Jackson, two cast members from the film, and the New Zealand National Board of Tourism.

Okay that may be a bit too much, but to celebrate the release of the film, Air New Zealand completely transformed a seemingly normal Boeing 777, into the mythical dragon. Hit the jump to find out all the details of the plane, and some photos from the event, which we were able to attend.

Geeks everywhere might have to sit down for this. Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit) has confirmed that he is in “actually kind of serious” talks to direct an episode of Doctor Who.

Jackson made a brief appearance in fifth doctor Peter Davison’s short, “The Five(ish) Doctors” last month in honor of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. Now it seems (and we hope) he is taking his fandom to the next level.

Continue reading to see what he had to say.

The Blu-ray deal of the week at Amazon this week The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy Extended Edition Blu-ray box set for only $44.99 (that’s 63% off the list price of $119.98).

The 15-disc extended edition Blu-ray set box contains the extended versions of all three of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films “” The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King “” along with over 26 hours of behind-the-scenes and making-of bonus material, including the Costa Botes documentaries. It also comes with the digital versions of the films.

A new three-minute sneak peek has been released by Warner Brothers for the upcoming sequel to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, titled The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, from director Peter Jackson.

You can check out the sneak peek as well as a description of this second installment of the trilogy below now.

Most geeks have at one time or another quoted Gandalf the Grey’s (as played by Ian McKellen) most epic of lines from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, “You shall not pass!”

So it was only a matter of time before someone dressed like Gandalf and tried it out on the unsuspecting public. As part of their Movies in Real Life series, Improv Everywhere took over Bow Bridge in Central Park and got to the denying passage…without much luck.

You can check out the video below.