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.
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3Foot6 (the spy, not the company) sends this in: The popular website thechive.com has a post today showing a bunch of old behind the scenes photos from the trilogy. I thought fellow fans would enjoy them. More..
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Bernie writes: Yesterday I attended the Sydney Armageddon Expo for 2011, in which John Rhys-Davies attended. At 11.30, he conducted a panel where he mentioned ‘The Hobbit’.
He said that he would love to return because he had such a brilliant time with ‘The Lord of the Rings’, but would be unable to, due to the toll that his prosthetic. Nothing new. To quote him, “I was asked to return as one of the 13 dwarves, and I thought, why would I want to be one of 13 when I could be one of one?” Continue reading “John Rhys-Davies Talks The Hobbit”
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Bruce Hopkins writes: I have uploaded this 2007 audio from an early morning visit to the studio by Sir Ian McKellen, Sylvester McCoy and Jonathan Hyde, truly the A Team of acting. They were in NZ with the Royal Shakespeare Co, performing King Lear and The Seagull. I took them on some sight seeing around Auckland and after the final show took them to a bar called Shanghai Lils. When I said I had to go to my talkback radio show Ian inquired if they were coming also, and so they did. The callers to the show didn’t really know who the guests were and my co-host Joe, wasn’t making a big deal of it. Highlights include Sylvester playing the spoons while a regular caller, 75yr old “Leggy Peggy” plays a knees up medley on piano. It’s 20mins long but has some great moments! Thanks to the producer Jason Beaumont for having the sense to record it. More..
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Thanks to Ringer Pasi for sending us this link to a LA Times blog video feature from last night’s Grammys. In the clip, Dominic Monaghan (Merry), talks about the past year and future products. At around the :44 second mark, he is asked about ‘The Hobbit’ films:
The British actor will be noticeably absent in Peter Jackson’s return to Middle-earth when the director takes on “The Hobbit,” but he’s dealing with it in stride: “I’m bummed in a nice way.” He added that he didn’t rule out working with the director in the future.
Check out the full article and video through the following links. [Video] [Story]
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Our friend and LOTR Alum Actor Bruce Hopkins sends this in regarding his radio program: I had a chat with Mike Foster, who heads the US Tolkien Society and is a Professor of English. During his college days at Marquette University he got into Tolkien and was able to actually use Tolkiens original hand written manuscripts! He tells us how Tolien actually wrote on the back of exam papers and so the reverse side had comments to students with regard their marks etc. We only had 9 minutes to talk, but I will chat with Mike on another show and carry on our Tolkien conversations. More..
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