It’s been more than a month since Sir Ian McKellen posted an entry on his blog “Notes From Imladris” dedicated to his adventures filming The Hobbit. But the wait seems to have been worth it.

His latest blog entry “THE HOBBIT, 2 Elves, and another Wizard” is replete with a picture of Hugo Weaving, who’ll be returning as Lord Elrond, a screencap from ROTK of Bret McKenzie as the Elf Lindir, and a picture of  Sylvester McCoy who’s been cast in the role of Radagast the Brown.

Threads of interest follow:

  • Martin Freeman has left The Hobbit. No worries: he’ll be back in Middle Earth after our first hiatus… The rest of the cast remains on duty for another few weeks, working on hobbit-less sections of the film.  These involve dwarves of course but also elves, with Hugo Weaving back for a stretch as Lord Elrond.
  • Another slim-line elf returning from LOTR, is a local: New Zealand’s actor/comedian/singer Bret McKenzie. Now he is briefly back in Rivendell as a senior official at Elrond’s Court and he has a name “Lindir”, which means “singer”.
  • And there’s another wizard in town, preparing to make his appearance as Radagast the Brown, the eccentric friend of Gandalf’s, played by Sylvester McCoy. This week he has been trying out his make-up and costume.

The blog post makes for an amazing read, so be sure to click that link above and read the Grey Wizard’s notes in his own hand.