Phil wrote:


Hobbit fatigue? Rust that only affects small folk with furry feet?

James Nesbitt is Bofur

They seem to be concentrating on the Dwarves in early casting.

Phil wrote:


It's the all important shortlist.

Given the number of beards on this forum we could have volunteered our services.

Hobbit stuff gets disgusterated on this week's Newsgeek /cheapplug

Has anyone been keeping up with The Hobbit news?

Filming commences on February 21st in New Zealand with Peter Jackson in the chair.

Martin Freeman is Bilbo but there have been reports that Ian Holm has been approached to play the older Hobbit. This casting may tie in with the news that Elijah Wood is to play Frodo as part of a "framing device" (maybe we'll see Bilbo & Frodo reading from the Red Book of Westmarch?)

Sir Ian McKellan is back as Gandalf.

Andy Serkis is back as Gollum.

Sir Christopher Lee is back as Saruman.

Kate Blanchete is back as Galadriel.

Sylvester McCoy is Radagast the Brown.

Unconfirmed reports state the likes of Orlando Bloom (Legolas) and Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) have been approached to reprise their roles. Legolas I can see as the company do visit his father's, King Thranduil, court in Mirkwood so Legolas would have been there even if not mentioned in the book. Aragorn might be a stretch even though he is old (87ish by LOTR) if included it might require a younger actor.

No news yet whether Hugo Weaving is to return as Elrond but I'd say its a good bet he will.

It's a running joke on Newsgeek that the Hobbit is shaping up to be little more than a Lord Of The Rings reunion party.
The inclusion of Elijah Wood seems particularly pointless.

org wrote:


I lay good money that Woods inclusion is simply a narrative device to get into and out of the story.
You can picture it. Frodo after his adventure to Mount Doom, writing the tale in his diary as we saw in the first ending of Return of the King. Then he puts down his quill, turns to Gandalf and says "Bilbo never really told me how he acquired that infernal ring Gandalf"

Gandalf sits down puffing at his pipe thoughtfully and begins to narrate the story, fade to the opening.

After that it could be completely forgotten till the end or we could have a princess bride thing, occasionally hopping out of the story back to Frodo quizzing Gandalf over some story point before returning to the main narrative.

presumably they will use CGI to suitably de-age actors playing a version of their character pre- LOTR. I do hope none of the actors have got fat though. Haven't seen CGI defatting and I don't know how well it would work

A NZ press conference with Martin Freeman and the dwarvesHERE. Not much to see really - everyone saying how lucky they are to be there.

I must admit I'm starting to look forward to this. I'm considering taking the route of no information though - avoiding all of the press, previews, interviews and so on. I'll probably do the same with Batman 3. Expectation for these will be huge.

Andy Serkis to serve as 2nd unit director on both films