AICn’s First Report From The Sets Of “The Hobbit”

October 31st, 2011 by Earl | Source: AICn | Discuss | | 1 Comment »

From Quint via Aint It Cool News:

I’ll be kicking off a new, temporary, regular column that I’m calling An Unexpected Journey because that’s exactly what it is.

A little over a month ago an email arrived asking of my interest in embedding myself on the set of The Hobbit for the entirety of their location shoot, spending over 2 months in New Zealand rolled in with the crew and writing up their adventures, hassles, triumphs and tribulations as they traveled all over the country shooting bits and pieces from the upcoming two-parter (sic) prequel to Lord of the Rings.“

Quint’s first report, titled “An Unexpected Journey: Quint on the set of The Hobbit! Part 1 – Concerning Hobbiton“, comes from Matamata, New Zealand, the location of Hobbiton, and it is filled with all sorts of Hobbitty goodness… and SPOILERS (so read the report at your own peril!)

Some non-spoiler excerpts follow:

• There were all manner of animals on the set ranging from goats to roosters, pigs, oxen, horses and all of them had handlers there to make sure they were fed, watered and safely munching on the lush green grass of Matamata. They would quickly duck out of frame whenever shots would go up.
• If you’ve watched the appendices on the Extended Editions of the Lord of the Rings films you should recognize Kiran [Shah]’s name. He’s a much loved character around the set. He’s an actor, stunt man and scale double. On Rings he doubled Elijah Wood. [In The Hobbit, Shah will be Martin Freeman's double.]
• [Kiran] Shah will also be a Goblin in the film.

So what do you all think? Share your thoughts and speculations on our message boards.

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More about Characters, Elijah Wood, Hobbit Cast News, Hobbit Movie, Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, Locations Sets, Martin Freeman, Production, The Hobbit

Happy 80th Birthday Sir Ian Holm!

September 12th, 2011 by admin | Discuss | | 4 Comments »

Sir Ian Holm, aka Bilbo Baggins, is turning 80 today! We’d like to wish Sir Ian an absolutely marvelous day and hope there are many more to come. Sir Ian was born in Goodmayes, a north eastern portion of London back in 1931. He will be reprising his role as the ‘older’ Bilbo Baggins for Peter Jackson’s upcoming two-film adaptation of The Hobbit! (Martin Freeman is playing the younger Bilbo) [More about Ian] (And happy birthday to our staffer Garfeimao as well!)

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More about Casting Rumors, Events, Hobbit Cast News, Hobbit Movie, Ian Holm, Lord of the Rings, LotR Cast News, LotR Movies, Other Events, The Hobbit

Ian Holm & Christopher Lee Shooting The Hobbit, Today?!

July 16th, 2011 by xoanon | 6 Comments »

Elessar sends along a curious tweet from artists/illusionist Derren Brown, not 2 hours ago he tweeted the following:

@DerrenBrown Off to watch some Ian Holm and Christopher Lee being filmed for The Hobbit. HOW EXCITING!

The tweet gives us a little more info on the apparent ‘UK shoot’ taking place sometime soon (maybe even today). Along with news that Elijah Wood is heading to the UK soon, and of course word that Christopher Lee wants to be involved in The Hobbit, save for traveling to New Zealand. No official word can be gleamed from the production (trust me, I tried), let us hope we learn more soon!

“Will PJ’s Tolkien Tinkering Make Or Break The Hobbit?”

June 3rd, 2011 by Earl | Source: guardian.co.uk | Discuss | | 10 Comments »

That’s the big question posed by Ben Child of The Guardian!

To begin with, fans have long known that Peter Jackson’s vision for his two-part adaptation of The Hobbit involves plans to include the activities of the White Council and the Necromancer of Dol Guldur, a rather sketchy storyline that minimally involves Gandalf, Saruman, and Galadriel, and occurs parallel to the main story of Bilbo’s journey with the thirteen Dwarves to the Lonely Mountain.

But while it could be argued that the White Council storyline is at least canon, what can be said about the surprising inclusion of Frodo, his father Drogo, an older Bilbo (played by Sir Ian Holm), and Legolas?

In his article Ben poses genuine questions that most fans (on TheOneRing.net at least) have been pondering over for months now:

What shape will Sauron take – Tolkien offers no clues – as he will presumably not yet have assumed the form of a great eye in which he appears in Lord of the Rings?

Does this mean that the 89-year-old Christopher Lee has made the trip to New Zealand after all to reprise his role as Saruman?

Going further than questioning the practicalities of filming this prelude to the Lord of the Rings, the article delves deeper into the question at the heart of the much-anticipated cinematic phenomenon – by pulling us away from the central story, will the films present The Hobbit through a very different prism than what was originally intended?

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More about Characters, Director news, Hobbit Book, Hobbit Movie, Hugo Weaving, Ian Holm, J.R.R. Tolkien, LotR Cast News, Orlando Bloom, Peter Jackson, The Hobbit, Tolkien

Official Film Titles Announced – March 2nd Titles Confirmed

May 30th, 2011 by newsfrombree | Source: The Hobbit Movie | Discuss | | 12 Comments »

Right smack dab in the middle of the Memorial Day Holiday in the US, Warner Brothers has announced the official titles for the two upcoming ‘The Hobbit‘ films. As previously reported in March, they are ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ and ‘The Hobbit: There and Back Again.’ Click ‘continue reading’ for the full release!

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More about Headlines, Hobbit Cast News, Hobbit Movie, Hugo Weaving, Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, Locations Sets, Orlando Bloom, Other Cast, Peter Jackson, The Hobbit

PJ Confirms Ian Holm in The Hobbit

April 22nd, 2011 by newsfrombree | Source: Peter Jackson | Discuss | | 17 Comments »

In a Facebook comment just posted moments ago, Director Peter Jackson confirms Ian Holm’s involvement in The Hobbit films and clarifies the voice at the end of last week’s video:

One comment that came up from the recent video blog was the Bilbo voice at the end—many of you assumed it was Sir Ian Holm. Whilst Ian will be returning as the older Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, that recording was actually Martin Freeman’s voice, taken from a script read through we recorded when the cast first arrived. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure who it was when I first heard it, either. Cheers, Peter J

[Check it out]

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More about Casting Rumors, Director news, Hobbit Movie, Ian Holm, Peter Jackson, The Hobbit

Sir Ian Holm Awaiting His “Hobbit” Call

March 3rd, 2011 by Earl | Source: The Telegraph | Discuss | | 4 Comments »

The Telegraph reports today that Sir Ian Holm, who portrayed Bilbo to perfection in the Lord of the Rings, was contacted previously to reprise his role as an “older Bilbo” in the upcoming Hobbit films, but he hasn’t heard back from the producers since. Excerpts from the Telegraph’s article follow:

“I don’t know what’s happening,” the 79-year-old actor admitted to me at the Saatchi Gallery. “I haven’t heard anything for weeks.”

“I had great fun playing Baggins in the first two films and the plan had been, with Martin Freeman playing Young Baggins, I would be the Old Baggins,” he adds. “I suppose the earthquake in Christchurch couldn’t have helped with communications.”

Sophie de Stempel, Sir Ian’s wife, tells me: “I worry that the film has run into so much bad luck that they might have missed their chance altogether.”

Here’s hoping we get to see Sir Ian Holm in the character of the memorable old Bilbo once again. In case you’re interested, the topic is already being discussed over at our message boards.

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More about Casting Rumors, Characters, Ian Holm, Lord of the Rings, LotR Cast News, The Hobbit

Counting the Stars

November 8th, 2009 by xoanon Comments Off

Graphic representations of how movie stars and their critics rate, according to Metacritic.com. Metacritic.com is an acclaimed Web site that combines thousands of media reviews of entertainment offerings — movies, games, books and albums — into a Metascore, a sort of weighted average of critics’ reviews that ranges from zero to 100. Analysis of just a small subset of the site’s information shows the power of numbers to confirm — or defy — expectation. More..

On the star list: Elijah Wood (#1), Viggo Mortensen (#3), Ian Holm (#4), Ian McKellen (#31), Cate Blanchett (#38)

Review: Re-Release of the BBC The Lord of the Rings

October 7th, 2008 by greendragon | Source: BBC | Discuss | Comments Off

The world is excited.  I feel it in the water.  I smell it in the air.  For much that once was, is rereleased…

As the world of Tolkien fandom eagerly prepares for the coming of The Hobbit movie(s), the BBC is helping us to fill in our time by re-releasing its fabulous radio dramatization of The Lord of the Rings.

Originally broadcast in 1981, this production is almost as classic as the books themselves.  It is THE quintessential radio dramatization.  Brilliantly acted, with atmospheric music and clever sound effects, this series has not dated at all.  Brian Sibley expertly adapted Tolkien’s writing into a script; narration is kept to a minimum and pacing is maintained through active dialogue, but at the same time as much as possible of Tolkien’s original text is included.  Book fans will love hearing cherished, familiar lines, and movie fans will enjoy spotting dialogue which made it into both Peter Jackson’s movies and this dramatization.

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More about Headlines, Ian Holm, Lord of the Rings, Merchandise, Miscellaneous, Other Merchandise, Tolkien

Empire Magazine Talk ‘Hobbit’

May 27th, 2008 by xoanon Comments Off

Seán writes: The interview in the upcoming Empire is presented in a preview on empireonline.com: On Bilbo: “In writing the part I obviously am thinking Old Bilbo and Ian Holm. We are writing based on that performance, but other than that, we have ideas. I can tell you that it’s down to a few names that we all agree upon. And that our first choice…completely, magically we said the same name. All of us! We said this is the guy we would talk to, but until the pages are there you have to let the character tell you who he wants to be played by. You can expect at least a year before we announce any casting.”

Hobbit chat with Peter Jackson and G. del Toro peppered with big news (and little details about both films)

May 24th, 2008 by MrCere | Discuss | Comments Off

Future “Hobbit” director Guillermo del Toro and former “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson sat down with a world-wide internet audience and answered a lot more than the announced “20 questions” this weekend.

Hosted by Weta, there were a lot of minor details and significant confirmations and revelations about the gigantic production that will yield two “Hobbit” related movies, one in 2011 and the second in 2012.

Peter Jackson said,

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Happy Birthday Ian Holm!

September 12th, 2007 by xoanon Comments Off