Many of us were posting on here when the original LoTR trilogy was announced and released back in 2001 almost 10 years ago now.

So why not a thread dedicated to The Hobbit?

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Gandalf-Speaks-Ian-McKellen-On-Returning-To-Middle-Earth-And-Why-It-s-Taken-Him-So-Long-22550.html?_r=true

- Finally Ian McKellan has confirmed he will return. On top of Andy Serkis, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood (!), and very likely Orlando Bloom and Ian Holm, that makes a sizable chunk of the trilogy's case members returning for the prequal. What do you think?

It wouldn't have been Middle Earth without Ian McKellen playing Gandalf or Andy Serkis as Gollum, but to include the other characters is stretching it to say the least. Ian Holm as the older Bilbo is doable, but Legolas was never in The Hobbit, although his father was, but Frodo? I don't even understand how that would work, as he definitely wasn't alive at that point.

Still, bloody excited for this. Roll on filming in Feb 2011!

maybe Wood is going to be one of the dwarves? I could see him doing that, as long as it's not Thorin. He's not really the one I'd picture for that. I'd take John Rhys Davies for Thorin, it's a shame he's already branded in my head as Gimli.

Orlando Bloom could be tapped to play Bard, though that would be strange. Not sure if that would even make sense for him actually. Although I vaguely recall there being elves near the end of the book, right? Maybe he's one of those?

And Cate Blanchett? Galadriel doesn't show up in the book, does she? Maybe she's one of the trolls.

Well, they're actually playing their original characters, ie Elijah as Frodo, Orlando as Legolas. Which makes it very weird!

I am wondering if the story will be told in a narrative form, with Frodo perhaps reading Bilbo's story; something as a filler maybe for the period between returning from defeating Sauron and his final journey out of Middle Earth with Bilbo, Gandalf and the elves.

Also, one of the theories regarding casting mentioned the possibility of Lady Galadriel being involved in the side story of Gandalf's absence, when he was joining Saruman and "others" to battle a Necromancer. There are no female roles in Bilbo's story so something had to be invented I am sure to allow for one, and Jackson does go on about his regard for Cate Blanchett.

And, Legolas may be one of the Wood Elves that imprisoned Thorin's band, as elves do not age the same as the rest of Middle Earth's inhabitants. I believe it was mentioned in one of the casting articles that he was, or may be, the son of the King of the Wood Elves.

I will keep an open mind, and trust in Jackson's affection for these characters and the Tolkien legacy.

Well, they're actually playing their original characters, ie Elijah as Frodo, Orlando as Legolas. Which makes it very weird!


I'm not sure I see how this can make any kind of sense in the story I'm familiar with. /boggle

Legolas would actually make sense for a cameo appearance, since his father was the king of the murkwood elves in the book. He was most certainly around back then, being a couple hundred years old when LotR was happening. The Hobbit only took place some 50 or 60 years before LotR.

Frodo and old Bilbo being in there, is probably gonna be another cameo spot scene or two, as someone else mentioned, it could be Frodo or Bilbo reading Bilbo's story, as he wrote it down and called it, "there and back again, a Hobbits story".

Though id think Samwise would make a better fit to tell the story, he could be reading the stories to his 13 children, since he was left with the book after all (called the Red book of Westmarch, composed of both Frodo and Bilbo's adventures, as well as the legends of the Smilrilians), after Frodo and Bilbo went with the elves west. He also, was the one who finished writing the books and passed it on to his eldest child Elenor, before he himself "went to the undying lands to the west, to join Frodo and Bilbo", that would make the best sense to add cameos for those two. It would certainly cap both stories together nicely, and it is in the appendix stories after the Return of the King.

Galadriel would make sense, as well as Saurman being in the movie, if they tell Gandalfs story with the fight with the Necromancer in the south. It was only mentioned in the books where Gandalf went, after he left Bilbo and the Dwarves in the middle of the Hobbit story.

I read a blurb a while back that they were planning to make two films out of it, one mostly the Hobbit, and one some sort of intermediate prequel to the LOTR. It sounded very specious.

Yes I believe this is what they're doing; the second film will cover the appendix information Tolkien added to his books, so it is based on legitimate source material. It involves a lot about invasions of Gondor and Aragon's assistance, as well as his hunting of Gollum etc, so it could be very action packed. This might be how many of the original characters come in to play, perhaps.

Frodo will be narrating the movie since he is finishing "There and Back Again" (iirc), and it is the story of the Hobbit.

The ambiguously gay Hobbits. The worst aspect of Lord of the Rings. :p

:devil

"Hobbit Buttsex!"

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Peter-Jackson-Hospitalized-Hobbit-Filming-Delayed-Again-22847.html?_r=true

- An article that, though somewhat serious, was actually quite funny. It is somewhat disturbing to compare Peter then and now!

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Peter-Jackson-Hospitalized-Hobbit-Filming-Delayed-Again-22847.html?_r=true

- An article that, though somewhat serious, was actually quite funny. It is somewhat disturbing to compare Peter then and now!


LOL, evil but true.


That guy with the pipe above, portly and dirty and badly dressed though he was... always seemed so much happier than this guy, the skinny, sad Peter Jackson with fashion sense who directed subpar movies like The Lovely Bones (http://ayonae.com/#) and is now stressing out somewhere in New Zealand:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12391286

- Production starts rolling!