With the NCAA college basketball tournament about to kick off this month in the USA, Harper Collins Canada…
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With the NCAA college basketball tournament about to kick off this month in the USA, Harper Collins Canada has been having their own “March Madness” with famous books pairing off against each other. Right now they are down to their Sweet Sixteen and The Hobbit is still in contention. The match-up this time is against another well-known fantasy book The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe.
Time for TORN fans to weigh in and enter the bracket. So get voting!
Sir Ian McKellen has updated his Hobbit blog and describes the process of preparing to roll film (or digital memory) on Peter Jackson’s pair of films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit.” It sounds like an ideal day. Check out the whole entry but this is a good taste:
“And I was there too, in Hobbiton, with a semi-circle of dwarves and Bilbo, their reluctant host. I was at the cast’s first joint rehearsal where Peter Jackson, with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, invited our comments on their script so far.”
Did we just get a hint that the screenplay is in a state of constant revision as it was with Jackson’s LOTR films? Sounds like it. For film fans, catch your breath, these are the moments before the starting gun goes off. Time to party likes its 1999! (Thanks to the many who sent in links.)
On this week’s episode of Hobbit in 5 we look at more ways to help New Zealand earthquake victims, Mikael Persbrandt wins and Oscar, more character studies, and Ringer Spy HobbitWatch gives us a glimpse of a very special Hobbit action sequence with Bilbo and the Dwarves. Hobbit in 5
Irish actor James Nesbitt, cast in the role of the Dwarf Bofur, spoke with the Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show on Absolute Radio this morning about the time he’s spent so far in New Zealand, reports BeeHiveCity and ContactMusic.com.
From BeeHiveCity:
“We’ve been here for training, because I’m going to be here for a year so the amount of work and the work we’ll be getting up to means we all have to be fit, you know, and a few of us are getting on a bit, so we’ve been training and horse-riding and doing stunts and all that kind of thing, and then we start.”
From ContactMusic.com:
“We haven’t started filming, we got here mid-January and we were supposed to rehearse, doing lots of horse-riding and framing and stunts and all that, but then Peter got ill, he had a perforated ulcer, so filming was delayed for a few weeks. Filming starts in about three weeks and I start in a month, but it’s been great, so I’ve had lots of time off. A typical day will be little bit of training, doing a bit of that, trying to get strong, and then doing lots of stunt fights and movement, then going out and horse-riding. I mean, it’s basically playing is what we’re doing.”
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.
Moahunter writes: Tom Cardy’s blog in The Dominion Post says “There is also other casting going on behind the scenes and I’ve heard on good authority that several children, some as young at 19 months, have already been cast as hobbit extras. And while hobbit sizes means ages can get confusing, they are playing hobbit children and have even been fitted for their costumes and have giant furry hobbit feet!” More..
