Mauro writes: I was listening to a Basta de Todo interview with the great Spanish actor/comedian/writer Santiago Segura, who performed in many movies and is a personal friend of both Guillermo del Toro and Alex de la Iglesia, featured in a lot of movies of both filmmakers. He performed starring roles in Spanish released titles of both of them and he did several cameo roles on the Hollywood movies of Alex and Guillermo (Hellboy, Perdita Durango, Blade II, etc). He’s sort of a fetish actor for both, he mentioned he’s traveling next week to New Zealand to “visit” his friend Guillermo, (he jokingly said “I’m going down there to beg him for a role on The Hobbit”). The interviewers and Santiago even hinted that the chance of a role is pretty much secure. Santiago Segura imdb
How serious are things getting on pre-pre-production on “The Hobbit”? Unconfirmed word has reached us (thanks spies!) that Lawrence Makoare (the unforgettable Lurtz, among other roles) has been asked to meet with Guillermo del Toro regarding “The Hobbit.” Certainly the versatile actor, stuntman and good guy would be great to have around the set but on a purely speculative note, do we have our Goblin King?
According to MovieHole.net, last week’s revelation of Hugo Weaving reprising his role as Elrond was a bit premature. They’ve talked to the popular actor and he said…
“I knew that if and when it happened I’d get a call and we’d chat about it, but I haven’t spoken to anyone about it. Someone said to me ‘I hear you’re doing the Hobbit?’ I said ‘Well, um, probably’, they said “No, no. you’ve signed on’. I haven’t actually talked to anyone about it. Doesn’t mean I won’t be doing it, [I’m] just not onboard yet.”
I’m sure we’ll hear official word one of these days, but in the meantime, it seems nothing is final.
Thanks to TORn message board member Theodred for digging up this great scoop! In the following BBC Radio 5 Simon Mayo interview, ‘Hobbit’ director Guillermo del Toro confirms that Hugo Weaving will be cast in the upcoming ‘Hobbit’ films. While he does not specifically say he is returning as Elrond, when speaking of Andy Serkis, Ian McKellen and Weaving he says, “…as the roles they originated in the trilogy.” I think we can make a good assumption that means Elrond! Take a moment to listen to the Simon Mayo broadcast over at BBC - the Hobbit casting talk is around the 02:10:55 point. Enjoy! [BBC Radio]
It seems everybody is talking about GDT, ‘The Strain’ and ‘The Hobbit’ right now but movie critic Steven Rea writes in: Just wanted to make you aware of the Guillermo del Toro interview piece that I did, and the reference to your (very cool) site. Click here for the story.
Cliff ‘Quickbeam’ Broadway and his gang at slaveboyfilms.com were at Meltdown Comics recently and caught up with Guillermo del Toro to talk THE HOBBIT!!
TheOneRing.net catches up with Guillermo Del Toro at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood. We touch on all topics Hobbit - voice of Smaug, the movie split, and even TORn anniversary!
Get GDT’s new vampire novel from Meltdown Comics
Check out other great videos, DVDs and T-shirts from Slave Boy Films
Check out The Noldor Blog, written by a Wellington-based LOTR tour operator who hears all sorts of interesting rumours. He can expand on Red Carpet Tours’ discovery that Viggo had been in New Zealand on film work recently. If you read down to here you’ll see a spy report suggesting Viggo will be in both Hobbit movies and reprise his role as a Dunedain protecting the Shire.
“The Hobbit,” has to be cast but that just leaves more time for fans to speculate, guess and suggest regarding the casting of the two-films planned by producer Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro.
There are a few givens. According to the decision makers, as many of the main characters that appear in both Jackson’s LOTR trilogy and GDT’s Hobbit films will be cast using existing actors from those roles as possible. And while media outlets trying to create news about the film have asked any actor they can find if they will appear, the list of sure crossovers are relatively small.
Ian Holm, approaching 80 years old, has stated that he is too old to play Bilbo because of the physical demands of the role and the required relocation to New Zealand. So the search for the main character is on. Most readers will be familiar with characters like Gandalf that belong to actors such as Ian McKellen so they will not be rehashed here because there is no debate about who will fill the role.
Read inside to find lists of names with links to help fans become familiar with many of the offered suggestions. Read the rest of this entry »