The announcement trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is now online!

The Peter Jackson film, which is a prequel to his epic award-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, stars Martin Freeman as the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.

Watch it here below.

All week, Amazon has been offering up Lightning Deals, limited quantities of various products for a discounted price for a 4-hour window of time, as a prelude to the biggest shopping day of the year — Black Friday. You have to be on the lookout for these deals and once the item runs out, the sale is over. Meaning, if you see something on sale that you want, buy it immediately before it’s gone.

Amazon has released the Lightning Deal schedule and prices for Movies & TV on DVD and Blu-ray for Friday, November 25, starting at 12:30AM PST (that’s 3:30AM EST) and running through 11:30pm PST. See list of Black Friday deals here below, along with more information on how these special deals work.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2011

12:30 a.m. – 4:30 a.m. PST

Hot Tub Time Machine
Blu-ray – $4.99

U-571 (Collector’s Edition)
DVD – $.99

Charlie Wilson’s War (Widescreen Edition)
DVD – $.99

Bruno
DVD – $.99

Peter Jackson has released the fourth video diary from the ongoing production of the two-part The Hobbit on his Facebook page.

You can watch the 11-minute video here below.

In this installment Jackson and his crew discuss their use of 3D on the shoot and the difficulties involved in employing the technology on an already-ambitious enough production.

The t-shirt deal of the day over at RIPT Apparel is called “Dark Lord Happy Hour,” inspired by the dark lord villains from Star Wars, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings.

The tee, by artist spacemonkeydr, went on sale at RIPT today, Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at midnight CST, and will continue for 24 hours from then, and once it’s over, it will not be sold on the site anymore.

The t-shirt is available in men’s and women’s sizes for $10 each in black. Kids sizes are $15 (Boys, Girls, Toddler in black); Onesies are $18 (in black). You can also get the design on a Hoodie for $38 (in Men/Unisex sizes in black).