New The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Promotional Image Released

Image Sources: Screen Rant & ComicBookMovie

Only four months to go until the Company of Dwarves stop singing about the Misty Mountains cold!
Warner Bros. Pictures have today released a new promotional image (below) for their impending fantasy film The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Based (increasingly) loosely on Chapters XVII-XIX of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic novel of the same name (no, seriously - there's only around 60 pages' worth of plot left to cover, but don't think for a second that these limitations will prevent helmer Peter Jackson from producing yet another three-hour epic), the third instalment in the commercially lucrative - yet critically divisive, to say the least - Hobbit film franchise will mark Peter Jackson's sixth and final foray into the mythologically-rich realms of Middle-Earth.

Ever the upholders of promotional consistency, Battle's marketing team have once again designed an all-encompassing banner which appears to cover all of the major set-pieces contained within the highly-anticipated blockbuster's climactic storyline. Not since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King or The Dark Knight Rises has a director been tasked with providing a rewarding and fulfilling denouement to such a dense and highly-regarded narrative as this (Jackson might as well be the film industry's George R.R. Martin, save for the contrasting fact that he'll give his fandom their long-awaited finale in good time rather than forcing them to wait for years on end), but if anyone can pull it off, it's the man who convinced us that a CGI ring-bearer could be every bit as realistic and sympathetic a construct as his live-action counterparts. If all goes according to plan, then we can doubtless expect a conclusion for the ages - if not, well, there's always Into the Woods...

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies wages war in UK cinemas this December 12th and on December 17th in the United States.

(To see the full banner in all of its high-res glory, visit http://i2.cdnds.net/14/38/movies-the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies-tapestry-artwork.jpg)