Check out brand new images from The Hobbit

The Hobbit - copyright Entertainment Weekly

The start of Bilbo Baggins' journey to the Lonely Mountain is still six months away but to make the wait a bit easier, have a look at this glossy selection of new images from The Hobbit.

You can scroll down to see Bilbo brandishing Sting, Gandalf in The Shire and Thorin Oakenshield's band of dwarves getting up to mischief.

Director Peter Jackson recently explained he's dedicated to expand the roles of some of the more minor characters from JRR Tolkien's novel.

"In the movie we want these characters to have story lines and a little more substance than they do in the book," he said.

"Almost everything we're doing is from Tolkien somewhere, whether it's in the book or the subsequent development that wasn't published in The Hobbit itself."

Here's the official synopsis for The Hobbit, which begins with An Unexpected Journey on 14 December 2012;

The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever...Gollum.

Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum's "precious" ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities ... A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.