A big Bilbo rumor has surfaced, via LatinoRevew.com, that Spider-man star Tobey Maguire may be in talks to be the star of the upcoming ‘Hobbit’ Films. Just a gentle reminder, before jumping over to read the whole story, nothing is confirmed. This will definitely make for some interesting discussions in the coming weeks. Share your thoughts with fellow Ringers in our forum. [Full Story]

Our sources indicate this rumor is NOT valid, again, this is NOT true according to our sources.

Celebriel forwards a wonderful interview with Andy Serkis, focusing on his latest role as Ian Dury in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and his eagerness to “get back into Gollum mode and revisit him.” More..

In the last few weeks, we’ve heard from reliable sources that casting directors for “The Hobbit” have been assigned in Great Britain, but the ball is now rolling ‘for real’ in New Zealand! The site acting-auditions.org just posted an announcement that MGM Studios New Zealand casting for ‘The Hobbit” Part 1 will begin this coming Monday, December 14. Per their site:

“Casting is scheduled to begin next week, December 14, 2009, on the upcoming MGM Studios feature film “The Hobbit” Part 1. The project is now being developed as two films, and principal photography is tentatively scheduled to begin in New Zealand around May or June 2011. Please submit photos and resume by mail only. No phone calls or personal drop-offs.”

Principal Actor Casting:
Liz Mullane Casting
(Address TBA)

Extras Casting:
Miranda Rivers
PO Box 6479
Marion Square
Wellington, New Zealand 6022

The entry also lists associated productions companies, but emphasizes NOT to send resumes and pictures to them or they will likely end up in the trash. If you’re lucky enough to live in New Zealand, best of luck to you! If not, remember that there are requirements you must meet to be eligible to work in New Zealand. You can read more about it in our Hobbit Movie FAQ here.

Do you intend to submit a resume? Discuss it on our chatroom and/or message boards and keep us posted on your progress! Thanks to message board member shadowdog for alerting us to this great news!

One of the most read members of TORn’s message boards dropped by to update us on “The Hobbit”. How reliable is this guy? Well, since he happens to be directing the two-movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s first published book in Middle-earth and is living in New Zealand to do so, we think trusting Guillermo del Toro’s information is rock solid. But, we are going to make you click inside to see what he had to say. (It was a lot) You can also follow the link to his post on our message boards and join in the conversation. Read the rest of this entry »

It still isn’t a confirmation but it is a good indication that AintItCool was on the right track when they claimed a source told them actor Brian Cox was potentially involved in the two-part film adaptation of “The Hobbit.” One of our world-wide network of spies was able to ask him face-to-face if the rumors were true that he was involved with the film and he answered with a chuckle and said, ‘I’m not at liberty to talk about that’. It proves nothing but that sure wasn’t a denial. A guess here would be that Cox is being considered for Thorin Oakenshield. Some of us certainly hope so!

In an interview today with MTV, Peter Jackson revealed that three Lord of the Rings actors will be returning to reprise their roles in The Hobbit:

“Gandalf, being a 2,000-year-old wizard, is still around and plays a major role in ‘The Hobbit,’ and we’re having Ian McKellen reprise,” explained the filmmaker, who is executive-producing the flick and writing the screenplay. “There’s a couple of other characters: Elrond, who was played by Hugo Weaving [in the original films], and there’s a possibility of Galadriel, who was played by Cate Blanchett.”

Read the rest of the article here..

The search for Bilbo Baggins has begun. Casting on “The Hobbit” begins this week, with wide auditions expected for each part except Gandalf, which is being reserved for Ian McKellen, who played the wizard in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

“We’re auditioning for every role,” Jackson said in an interview, adding he is a big believer in casting a wide net to better match actors with the roles. “What we’ve done over the years is discover a lot of interesting actors, like Orlando Bloom (in ‘Rings’), Kate Winslet (in ‘Heavenly Creatures’), Saoirse Ronan (in ‘The Lovely Bones’). So if you start looking and auditioning seriously, it’s amazing what incredible talent you’ll find out there.”

Jackson denied that he had settled on any actors besides McKellen and pooh-poohed Web chatter that he has approached James McAvoy for a key role.  “Apart from Ian McKellen, who we obviously want to return as Gandalf, we are not really offering any roles to anybody until we’ve done a casting sweep,” Jackson said. Notable that Andy Serkis and Hugo Weaving were not mentioned with McKellen as actors reserved for their previous roles.  Was that on purpose or a simple oversight?  We are sure TORN posters will have some comments on this!  Read the entire article at The Hollywood Reporter.

Epleterte writes: Again an awesome Hobbit casting rumour from Aintitcool’s “AICN: Downunder” column, From Latauro’s post: AICN-Downunder: your one-stop shop for HOBBIT casting news. There’s nothing like breaking the (admittedly-unconfirmed) news about Brian Cox getting all dwarf-like to bring your old sources out of the woodwork. Another trusted anonymous name from way back — who, I might add, had heard the Brian Cox rumours before I published them — has another name to add to the pile: Tom Waits. As much as I’d like to say he’s a lock, I’m told he’s simply someone the production is talking about — but they seem to be talking about him pretty seriously. But how inspired is this? So very left field, yet oddly perfect. And here I was thinking Cox was the coolest guy they could hand an axe to.

US, December 5, 2009 – IGN Movies chatted exclusively tonight with Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson at a cocktail reception for his new film The Lovely Bones, during which time he spoke about The Hobbit.

We specifically asked Jackson if he could rule out any of the oft-rumored candidates to play Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings prequel, specifically Daniel Radcliffe, Martin Freeman, James McAvoy and David Tennant. He said some of them were not under consideration, but refused to say who had been ruled out because he didn’t want anyone to figure anything out via process of elimination. More..