Sir Ian McKellen has said that he would like to reprise the role of Gandalf if there is a movie adaptation of The Hobbit. The film of the J.R.R. Tolkien novel has been delayed due to disputes between Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and the production studios. However, McKellen has claimed that he would enjoy playing the wizard again, even if Jackson isn’t at the helm. He told Reuters: “When Peter announced he had withdrawn from The Hobbit, he sent me an e-mail saying, ‘Because I am not going to do it, it doesn’t mean you have to do the same. Of course, you must play Gandalf whether I direct or not.'”McKellen keen to be Gandalf in Hobbit
Category: Hobbit Cast News
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — It seems no iconic figure is beyond Cate Blanchett, who shot to stardom as Queen Elizabeth I, won an Academy Award as Katharine Hepburn and enchanted audiences as the mythic elf Galadriel in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. In “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” which opened Friday, Blanchett reprises her role as the long-reigning queen during her epic struggle to protect England amid a holy war with Spain. A month after “The Golden Age” comes “I’m Not There,” with Blanchett one of six actors embodying an icon of modern times — Bob Dylan. Blanchett plays an incarnation of the musician during the Dylan-goes-electric uproar in the mid-1960s, when fans of his early acoustic sound renounced him for plugging in.The many faces of Cate Blanchett
MTV Movie Blog continues to snag some great ‘Hobbit’ film tidbits! This time around, they’ve caught up with Cate Blanchett and asked her if she’d be up for an appearance in a film version of ‘The Hobbit’:
“”I haven’t heard a thing [about a potential ‘Hobbit’ film],” she declared. “But, oh God, I would love to work with Hugo [Weaving] and Peter [Jackson] again.”
Blanchett is the latest “Lord of the Rings” actor to tell MTV that she’d consider playing her character again for a prequel series. Like Viggo Mortensen or Orlando Bloom, Blanchett’s character doesn’t exactly appear in “The Hobbit,” although thanks to J.R.R. Tolkien’s extensive later backstories, her insertion would be completely unproblematic. In fact, it’s hard to envision a “Hobbit” film WITHOUT Galadriel, particularly if the film covers any of the period between the defeat of Smaug and the War of the Ring.”
Read the full interview over at MTV!
Jonathan let us know that you can catch Ian McKellen’s recent interview on ‘Charlie Rose’ online at charlierose.com. An added bonus is catching his 1999 interview with Rose, just a few years before he became a household name.
Celebriel forwards a new Wired Magazine interview with fan favorite Andy Serkis, discussing his work in the PlayStation 3 title Heavenly Sword and upcoming films Freezing Time, about Victorian photographer Eadweard Muybridge, and Inkheart, about an antiquarian bookbinder who, when he reads aloud, can bring characters from books into the real world.
In the U.S., most people know Ian McKellen as the villainous Magneto in the X-Men movies — and of course as the wizard Gandalf, in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But long before he became an international superstar, McKellen was known as the finest Shakespearean actor of his generation. He’s played Romeo, Macbeth, Iago, and Richard III (on stage and on film) and now he’s touring the United States with one of the greatest Shakespeare roles of all time: King Lear.