Ian McKellen‘s new blog entry, titled “Moving On“, chronicles a portion of his travels along New Zealand’s North Island where location filming for The Hobbit is currently on. Excerpts follow:
Our first filming destination was Matamata, where eleven years ago Gandalf the Grey made his entrance into The Fellowship of the Ring, greeting Ian Holm’s Bilbo on the doorstep of Bag End.
All our trucks, trailers, generators, dining tent and loos were hidden behind and below the surrounding hillocks but it was nostalgic to clamber up the path that leads to Bag End where this time Martin Freeman’s Bilbo will be surprised by Gandalf.
We filmed there for less than a week, this time leaving everything behind, so future visitors do not have to guess at but actually see Hobbiton in its glory. They will even be able to get a snack at the Green Dragon.
Read more of Gandalf’s adventures by clicking the link provided above.
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Nobody can be shocked or even surprised but some fans were still holding out hope that Viggo Moretensen‘s Aragorn character would return in some form or fashion for the two part presentation of Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit.
In an interview with Movies.com, the actor addressed the question directly and says that while he was once asked if he was willing to be involved, nothing has moved forward at this point. That may not be official, but its about as confirmed as information gets.
“I’m not in it unless it there is some last-minute plan they have, but I thought I would have heard of it by now.”
During the Middle-earth portion of the interview he mentioned the “bridge film” that was once part of the two-movie plan for The Hobbit but was later abandoned when the writing team of Jackson, Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyens and Guillermo del Toro wrote the episodic children’s book into a two part movie. The mysterious bridge film was dropped. Moretensen also spoke of his third film with director David Cronenberg, titled A Dangerous Method, where the actor portrays Sigmund Freud.
The full article is available right here.
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Movies.com features a Hobbit Countdown feature every other week written by our own staffer Larry D. Curtis. In the latest writing he speculates on what might be included in the coming Hobbit teaser and he looks back a decade ago when fans rocked the internet and went to see film Thirteen Days just to catch the first glimpse of Middle-earth. We included the LOTR tease below but here is a hint of what one writer speculates will be in the clip rumored to be with the new Sherlock Holmes: a Game of Shadows December 16th. Despite inquiries no official confirmation has been issued. Variety broke the story on Twitter when Jeff Sneider tweeted, “Expect to see THE DARK KNIGHT RISES trailer in front of SHERLOCK HOLMES 2… And MAYBE even a HOBBIT teaser,”
Take that “MAYBE” as you will.
Below is a block of text from the Movies.com speculative article about the hoped for tease. You can read the whole thing right here. And, if you want to see TheOneRing.net archives about LOTR trailers, we have that too.
Plan on something about a ring to be sure. Andy Serkis’ Gollum will be back to give less-fervent fans a reminder of what the connective tissue between LOTR and the Hobbit is. Martin Freeman’s earnest face will surely get the most screen time as the title character but expect the beloved Ian McKellen as Gandalf to be close behind in terms of time. With location shooting scheduled to turn to studio work early next year and last until June, it is clear that large portions of the adaptation have yet to go before cameras.
Finally, we included the original teaser from a decade ago. Did you see it first at theaters or on the web?
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Benedict Cumberbatch will not only provide the voice of the dragon Smaug The Magnificent, he will perform the role using the motion capture technology pioneered by Andy Serkis and Weta Digital, according to the actor himself.
The design of the most iconic villain in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and indeed probably the greatest literary great worm of the 20th Century, remains a secret and a key ingredient of Peter Jackson’s two part movie adaptation due in December 2012 and December 2013. The actor, the title character acting opposite Martin Freeman in the BBC’s Sherlock, revealed to Collider during a press junket that he hasn’t done his Hobbit stint yet and that he will not only provide the voice for the creature but perform him as well. You can see the video or read the interview right here.
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Its been a week but TheOneRing.net had a nice chat that aired last Monday on Fictional Frotiers with Sohaib. Senior Staffer MrCere is a regular guest on the program which broadcasts in Philadelphia and then is available on the web. The radio broadcast featured a shorter version of the conversation because of the magic of the interwebs, the longer 30-minute conversation is available right here.
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Luke Evans, who’s been cast in THE HOBBIT in the key role of Bard the Bowman and currently stars as Zeus in the mythical actioner IMMORTALS, recently spoke with Fresno Bee on being part of possibly the biggest film of his career.
“It’s keeping life real, that’s what’s important, and not losing yourself in the fact that you’re in ‘The Hobbit’.
I had a little bit of a heart flutter the first day I got there [New Zealand] because they have this thing where they show the new actors around all the sets and I saw Bilbo’s house, and I was like, “I actually walked into Bilbo’s house!” It was the most amazing thing.”
Read the full story over at Fresno Bee.
Thanks to message board member gaer_carreg for the heads-up.
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