From Joe Utichi at rottentomatoes.com: Sir Ian McKellen is spending the week at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, where he was last night presented with a special Donostia Award in recognition of his career as an actor. RT was in town to catch the presentation, and earlier in the day we sat down with McKellen to discuss the award and his work. Of course, as Guillermo del Toro readies to direct The Hobbit, which will see McKellen pull on the cloak and hat of Gandalf the wizard for the first time in seven years, we couldn’t help but look to the future and find out how things were going with the project. In fact it was McKellen who raised the wizard’s name before we asked, rather controversially declaring to RT, “I don’t want to play Gandalf again.” But before a million Rings fans cry out in terror at the thought of another thesp stepping into the role, McKellen was actually discussing the risk of typecasting the wake of a big success. “If you play a part that gets an awful lot of attention,” he explained, “forever after you’re being asked by directors to play the same part in their movie. But I played the best wizard, and I’m happy to revisit him, which I shall do in The Hobbit with Guillermo del Toro.” More..
Category: Ian McKellen
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (AFP) – British actor Ian McKellen was Wednesday honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the San Sebastian film festival in Spain. The 70-year-old “Lord of the Rings” star received the festival’s Donostia Award, which goes to “a great film personality in recognition for their work and career.” “I’m very gratified for this Donostia Prize because it’s not just for a character, but for a career,” he told a news conference. More..
Cerce7 sends this in via: The Shakespeare Theatre website in Washington, D.C.: The Shakespeare Theatre Company invites you to join us for the Harman Center for the Arts Annual Gala, Sunday, October 25, 2009. The 2009 Gala will feature performances in a myriad of artistic disciplines based on A Midsummer Nights Dream. The Gala will also feature the presentation of the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre to Sir Ian McKellen and the Sidney Harman Award for Philanthropy in the Arts followed by dinner and dancing. Continue reading “Sir Ian to Recieve Award in Washington, D.C.”
Ringer Karl Falconer, who attended the BFI IMAX LOTR All-night screening managed to snag the following video of Sir Ian McKellen at last night’s event. The video is on Karl’s Facebook page, so I’ll need to login to see it – but its worth it! First off, Sir Ian revels he will be in New Zealand in March to begin filming for approximately a year, with the first of two films being released Christmas 2011. (as expected, but great to hear from Ian!) As our earlier reports have revealed, Sir Ian also states he ‘pretty well knows’ who will play “Frodo” (maybe a small slip up, and he meant Bilbo) and that we will be happy with the casting (2:22 mark of video). A huge thanks to Karl for sending us the link to his video. [Ian McKellen Video] And while you are on facebook, don’t forget to become a fan of TheOneRing.net! [TORn on Facebook]
We heard some rumors this week, that remain unverified, that the script for “The Hobbit,” has been delivered to the studio. The rumors indicate that the first draft that Peter Jackson talked about at Comic-Con is in the process of having a budget built from it. Is this true? Can you bank on it? We don’t know for sure, but we have a hunch this is the case.
Then we received the following e-mail tonight from Ringer spy Olli from an all-night LOTR screening which seems to confirm everything we have been hearing and he was definitely not the source of our earlier rumors. He says, “Currently at the all night screening at the bfi IMAX, London of lotr. Ian McKellan dropped by earlier and revealed he is currently re-Reading the hobbit and is expecting to be back in NZ in march. App(arently) he also knows who they’re getting to play Bilbo & that he should be seeing the script within the next week. Well it’s 3:30am – TTT is about to begin so bye!” Big thanks to Olli and our other unrevealed whisperers.
Again, we cannot confirm this but we believe Sir Ian. We think the script is finished, the studio likes it (more or less), Bilbo has been chosen. “The Hobbit,” may have a green light, there may be may be a Bilbo who has agreed in principal (or more officially perhaps) and pre-production might have started or be about to begin! (We think it may have started.) If anybody knows more or know differently, send us word immediately! Continue reading “McKellen says Bilbo is cast; ‘Hobbit’ script likely finished”
The plan was to be impartial and emotionless in the printed word and provide interested parties (hopefully you dear reader) all the facts and information from Peter Jackson’s un-press conference in San Diego as possible.
After all, he had 40 or so of us delighted to be trapped in a room with him in a small but luxurious hotel a few hundred meters from the convention center where the world’s biggest celebration of popular culture was taking place. It was the end of the first day of the four-day event and Jackson had swooped into town, showed off his first ever public screening of “District 9,” and then convened Geek Court. Continue reading “Peter Jackson speaks”