From Total Film: Eighteen months ago, Guillermo del Toro had a 10-year-plan. His life was mapped out, and it had nothing to do with JRR Tolkien’s lovingly rendered cartography of Middle-earth. “I was calmly laying out the next decade of my life when The Hobbit appeared,” he laughs. “I was preparing all these things and all of a sudden The Hobbit shows up and takes over my life.” Make no mistake: The Hobbit is his precious. Del Toro knows more than anyone that this diptych could – should – define his career. And so the director has been busy building a world that not only honours JRR Tolkien’s book and Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy but will emerge assuredly, triumphantly, his own. More..
Category: Hobbit Movie
News is on the Associated Press wire today that the founder of the pop-culture showcase, the San Diego Comic-Con, Sheldon Dorf, has died at age 76. A spokesperson for Dorf’s family, friend Greg Koudoulian, says he died at a San Diego hospital as a result of kidney failure and problems caused by diabetes. At the official Comic-Con Website there is a message from the Board of Directors, Staff and volunteers of the Comic-Con organization as they “mourn the passing of our dear friend Shel”. Continue reading “Comic-Con founder dies”
Thanks to message board member Theodred for alerting us to this story from scifiwire.com: Ian McKellen, whom we expect will put on Gandalf’s gray robes in director Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Hobbit movies, tells us he’s finally read the script for the films. And, no, he won’t tell us much about it, except that producer Peter Jackson (who co-wrote the script with longtime Lord of the Rings collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, as well as del Toro) wrote it specifically for him.
“As Peter has said, they loved writing Gandalf [for The Hobbit] because they knew who they were writing him for,” McKellen told us exclusively in an interview last week while promoting AMC’s The Prisoner. “There are a lot of characters in The Hobbit, including, crucially, Bilbo, and they don’t know who’s going to play Bilbo. So it’s extremely attractive that this part has been written for me. The other Gandalf was written for, well, just as Gandalf. There’s lots for me to enjoy, in all sorts of ways. And I couldn’t be happier. But I’m sworn to secrecy. I’m not to say anything at all about the script.” More..
Shannon writes: Thanks to your reporting I found out about Sir Ian attending the Shakespeare Gala in DC. It was several days after my twenty-first birthday, so I approached my parents asking them if we could make the trek there from New York as my present, and much to my surprise, they agreed. They are well aware of my goal to meet the entire Fellowship and have helped me meet five so far, so it seemed like a great idea to them to help me meet such an awesome number six for my birthday. Continue reading “Sir Ian McKellen Shakespeare Gala Report”
stormcrow20 sends us word that Sir Ian McKellen is set to appear on both The View and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, November 5, 2009.
Holbytla writes: The BBC has just commissioned a six part series entitled ‘Handle with Prayer’ starring Tom Hollander, for broadcast sometime in 2010 (production beginning in January). This obviously casts doubt on his availability for the role of Bilbo, having previously appeared on a number of lists as a possible candidate for the part.