SAM RAIMI, who was on the shortlist of directors for the big-screen remake of The Hobbit, says Guillermo del Toro was a brilliant choice to make the film. thehobbit1.jpgSpider-Man director Raimi told Empire magazine: “I thought that The Hobbit was just a fantastic icon of fantasy literature. I love that book and I’m a giant fan of the Lord of the Rings movies. “It would have been an excellent job but Peter Jackson is the producer and he chose who he thinks would be the best filmmaker, which is Guillermo del Toro, who I love. Del Toro was right choice for The Hobbit, says Raimi
Category: Hobbit Movie
Sir Ian McKellen hasn’t spent his entire acting career aching to play Shakespeare’s King Lear. “I thought it was beyond me,” the veteran English actor said, surprisingly. “It was never a part I wanted to play. I knew, from having seen other people play it up close, that it takes an awful lot out of you. “You can’t throw off a King Lear. You have to delve into it.” McKellen never too old to be young
Sir Ian McKellen received rave reviews for his performance in the title role of “King Lear,” but he’s quick to give credit where credit is due.
The playwright.
“Lear — it’s all there. It’s all pretty obvious what’s going on,” he said. “Although a psychiatrist reviewed the production and praised me for having clearly done my research into the particularity of Lear’s mental problem. I’ve done nothing of the sort. I’ve done no research whatsoever. I just played the part as it seemed to me the words wanted me to. And the brilliance was not mine, but Shakespeare’s. Read McKellen as ‘King Lear’ to the masses
In a trailer on the edge of a film set beneath an underpass in downtown Cape Town, Ian McKellen, 69, is musing about fame and death, and what the papers will say when he goes. “ ’GANDALF DIES,’ I expect,” he says. The thought tickles him. Not the dying part. The part about being a classical actor and having billions of fans, most of whom are 12. “When you spend as long as I have doing beautiful work which is only seen by a few thousand people, to be involved in popular entertainment without lessening one’s standards … that’s fairly appealing,” he says. “You become part of the culture.” It’s not that McKellen ever shied away from fame. On the contrary, he sought it out “to publicise myself to people who might employ me.” You might say he overachieved. “Now it’s … well, it’s gone well beyond that.” Ian McKellen: The Player
morten writes: I just saw the news that Christopher Lee is going to be at the LOTR in Concert in Copenhagen. I am looking forward to it – the people behind it are the Tolkien Ensemble, who has created some beautiful and moody music for LotR and the illustrations for the LotR created by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe the 2nd will be a part of the experience. Just thought I’d let you know since I haven’t heard a mention of it on theonering.net so far. Here is the link, in Danish (sorry!). Christopher Lee At LOTR in Concert in Copenhagen
If there is one thing the director of The Hobbit cannot be without while based in Wellington, it is plenty of graphic novels and books. Mexican Guillermo del Toro has been in Unity Books in Willis St buying large numbers of graphic novels and books as he settles in for pre-production on the two-part adaptation of The Hobbit at Peter Jackson’s Miramar studios. Shooting takes place next year. Del Toro was also a guest at Wellington Zoo on Sunday for the introduction of Weta Workshop’s new children’s television series The WotWots – the first time he has appeared before the media since arriving in Wellington. Del Toro, whose two recent Hellboy movies were based on a comic book series, is renowned for being a voracious reader. Hobbit director feeds comic book habit