Fans have been given their first glimpse of the second movie in Peter Jackson's current Middle Earth trilogy with a three-minute "sneak peek" video.
A worldwide fan event was held for The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug last night, with crowds gathering at movie theatres in Los Angeles, New York, Wellington, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Brussels, Paris, Rome, Miami, Toronto, Hamburg and Sydney.

At the LA event, director Jackson was joined by Evangeline Lilly, who plays the newly created character of Tauriel, and she attempted to win over sceptical fans who had been miffed by the interference with author JRR Tolkien's book.
Gollum actor Andy Serkis and Lee Pace were present at the London event and fans turned up in fancy dress at all the locations - which were connected via a live video link.
But despite all the other attractions, it was the first glimpse of dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) which aroused the biggest response of the night from fans.
Meanwhile, Ed Sheeran has revealed that he will be contributing his first solo track for two years to the movie's soundtrack.
His I See Fire will be used on the end credits of the movie, and he sent a tweet to thank director Jackson.
"Big up Peter Jackson and his team for giving me the opportunity," he wrote.
The movie hits cinemas on 13 December. A [uuid=d0fe6e2e-9dea-46d3-8741-576eb98626bb]series of new posters[/uuid] was revealed yesterday.

SEE MORE IMAGES FROM THE HOBBIT HERE!

[uuid=e7edec10-e7cb-4b7e-87b8-883f8979a1fd]SEE MORE IMAGES FROM THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG HERE![/uuid]