The Hobbit (the first of two movies) doesn’t open until next December, but until then, The LA Times has released a new publicity still of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins. If my Tolkien knowledge serves, that’s Bilbo with his sword, Lucille, preparing for his journey up Munchkin Mountain with the dwarves Oin, Loin, McGloin, Dingleberry, and the rest of the Lollipop Guild. But don’t quote me on that.

After the jump, it’s a new still from Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s Alien epic starring Idris Elba and Michael Fassbender’s penis.

As a few other sites have already pointed out, if you lighten it up a bit, you can see a couple Space Jockey suits in the background:

I didn’t know what that was, so I beat up a nerd and stole this block quote from him:

So yeah, this will be an Alien prequel. Why not just call a “spade” a “spade,” as the old saying goes? In case you haven’t seen Scott’s 1979 masterpiece in years, the Space Jockey was the mysterious, fossilized alien creature spotted sitting in a chair, or on some throne of bizarre technology. Scott, at one point, promised the Space Jockey’s back story – and that still may be coming – but then he changed his tune to say that Prometheus will be a standalone story with threads that might connect with Alien.

That’s Noomi Rapace, the original Lisbeth Salander, in the photo. She’s standing in an alien tunnel, and if you are impressed by the authentic look of the sets, that’s because Scott and his team are going for an epic scope that calls to mind the best of David Lean, director of Lawrence of Arabia. [CinemaBlend]

Well that’s cool, I guess. Though I think it would be at least as cool if Space Jockeys were little Spanish dudes who rode around on your shoulders and told you where aliens were. “No, no, señor, thees way, por favor.”