Okay … I’m Officially Jazzed About The Hobbit Now

[the_gneech]

It’s official — they’re going to start filming on March 21st. Peter Jackson is at the helm again, with official sign-on by Christopher Lee as Saruman, Ian McKellan as Gandalf, Andy Serkis as Gollum, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Sylvester “Seventh Doctor” McCoy as Radagast, and Elijah Wood in a Frodo cameo. No word on Elrond, as far as I know, but also rumors (unconfirmed last I heard) of Orlando Bloom returning as Legolas.

The presence of Saruman, Galadriel, etc., is part of the whole “expanding on the storyline” plan, to flesh out the story by including the White Council’s ousting of “The Necromancer” from Dol Guldur in Mirkwood, which is hinted about in The Hobbit (mainly as the “business to the south” that Gandalf keeps disappearing to through so much of the book to take care of). Legolas’ presence is presumably a side-effect of the dwarves being the prisoner of Thranduil, Legolas’ father — it wouldn’t take much stretching for him to be one of the wood-elves who have the most face-time. (Maybe Bilbo had a little more inside help than he thought there, eh?)

Release date of December 2012. Yeah, baby! It’s about time!

-The Gneech

Originally published at gneech.com. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[kevinjdog.livejournal.com]

Martin "Not as good as the other Arthur Dent" Freeman is still Bilbo, I take it?

EDIT: Finally found it on the website. Yep.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Heh, was he Arthur? I totally forgot about that. I think of him as Watson.

Now Ricky Gervais would have been a good Arthur Dent...

-TG

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

About time and past it. Been waiting for this since the credits rolled on ROTK. :)

cheers,
Phil

[radbaron.livejournal.com]

You do realize that if it comes out on Christmas day, 2012.... no-one will be around to see it, as the Earth has exploded 4 days previously :D

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

At least I'll die happy 'cause I have a movie to look forward to!

-TG

[hantamouse.livejournal.com]

Meh? Sylvester McCoy can't play... anybody ever. That's just not right.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

There's a long and noble history of Doctors Who showing up in weird roles in fantasy movies. Doctors Two and Four were wizards in Ray Harryhousen flicks; Doctor Ten was in a Harry Potter movie before he was a Doctor. And of course, Doctor Five had a whole other series (All Creatures Great and Small) that he was famous for.

It's legit!

-The Gneech

[radbaron.livejournal.com]

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0146688/

And now, David Tennant as King Thranduil (maybe) in The Hobbit as well

[kevinjdog.livejournal.com]

I still think of Doctor 5 as Tristan Farnon.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

I'm confused. If the story's so big that they have to cut it into a two reeler, why do they need to flesh it out and add the Necromancer?

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

It's not -- but after Lord of the Rings the filmmakers figured the public would be a bit let down by just the one movie, so they're expanding it to two and putting in stuff to make it work as such.

-TG

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

I'll keep my mutterings about Jackson's liberties with LOTR to myself, tonight. (A difficult feat: we're watching the Battle of Helm's Deep just now, one of his worst examples.)

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

I wasn't half as bothered by the stuff at Helm's Deep as I was by what he did to Faramir. That said, it was still far and away better than the Bakshi or Rankin/Bass versions -- and there was a lot that was gloriously, fist-pumping right, too.

Ya takes what you can gets!

-TG

[kevinjdog.livejournal.com]

The "Expanding to two movies" is a fad, anyway... even the next freakin' TWILIGHT movie is split into two. Why pay $10.50 when you can pay $21?

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

They MUST do this right... they've got a good track record! :>