IGN caught up with Andy Serkis and, among other things, asked him when fans can expect the first trailer for The Hobbit. Here’s what Andy had to say:
“There will be a trailer fairly soon, actually. Around Christmas time, I believe.”
Besides reprising his role as Gollum, Serkis has also taken up duties as Second Unit Director on the films, concerning which he says:
“It’s quite fascinating, I’m having a ball. It’s a huge operation, really. We’re on the road at the moment, at various different locations on South Island in New Zealand. There are some truly remarkable landscapes that we’re filming in. It’s just stunning.”
Andy also spoke a bit about shooting in 5K at 48 fps. To read the entire interview, head over to IGN.
So which December film will have The Hobbit trailer playing in front of it? Join the speculation on our boards.
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Sir Ian McKellen has updated his blog with a new entry titled “Soldiering On” and, among other things, talks about his role as Gandalf the Grey in The Hobbit.
The relevant excerpt follows:
In The Hobbit, Gandalf is part old duffer but more he’s a soldier. Peter Jackson, who likes to see the old guys fighting it out, reminded me the other day that Gandalf is a commander, a general.
Having slain the Great Goblin I was being a bit too indulgent with the dwarves who meanwhile had mislaid Bilbo in the goblin tunnels. I’ve played enough soldiers to see that PJ was right and in the next take I was very stern.
The image on the right comes courtesy of McKellen’s blog post.
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Luke Evans Interview – Immortals from FirstShowing.net on Vimeo.
Earl sends this along: Luke Evans speaks about Bard towards the last one minute or so in this interview about his work in ‘Immortals’ (out today). He said he’s already shot for 6 weeks and will be until next June. More..
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The folks at TheOneRing.net are great miners… of information.
A few months ago, message board member Moahunter alerted us to a posting over at Johnson&Laird that listed an actor named Ray Henwood as playing the role of “Old Bellringer” in The Hobbit, a role that has subsequently been changed to “Net Mender“. To our purely speculative minds, both roles seem to have been crafted with a common intent – to have a man who sees Smaug’s firelight coming down the river from the North and alerts the people of Laketown.
As a piece of trivia, this is the same actor who played the character Erland in The Fellowship of the Ring, where he was present at the Council of Elrond as a Dale Counselor, the Advisor of Brand, son of Bain, son of Bard. More geeky information along with images can be found here.
Anyway, digging for more information on the same site brought something else of interest to our notice.
An actor named Robin Kerr has seemingly been cast in the role of Elros. We don’t suppose this is the character who, according to the books, is Elrond’s brother (who wasn’t an Elf anyway).
We feel rather that the name Elros is just being reused for a hero Elf, similar to how the name Morwen was used for a woman of Rohan in The Two Towers.
What do you think of all this? Feel free to share your thoughts on our message boards.
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Variety recently interviewed Benedict Cumberbatch about the iconic roles he’s lately been playing on both TV and cinema, and there’s a small bit where the man talks about his preparation for the role of Smaug.
The relevant excerpt follows:
“I’ll be donning … well, probably not Andy Serkis’ sweaty wet suit … I’m sure they dry clean it.
Playing a reptile is something I don’t believe has been done before. I’ve already started working out, crawling around on my belly whenever I can without alarming people too much.”
Thanks to message board member Oleander Took for the alert!
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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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