Ian McKellen was recently confirmed to take the role as Gandalf in the upcoming “The Hobbit” films. Empire had the chance to talk to Ian McKellen at the UK premiere of Speed Racer. McKellen was asked about the second film, but didn’t know exactly what Del Toro was planning for it.
So, on spotting The Lord Of The Rings star at the UK premiere of Speed Racer (no, we don’t know what he was doing there either), we grabbed him for a quick chat.
“Yes, it’s true,” he said. “I spoke to Guillermo in the very room that Peter Jackson offered me the part and he confirmed that I would be reprising the role. Obviously, it’s not a part that you turn down, I loved playing Gandalf.”
It seems like “The Hobbit” announcements have been flying in. I personally foresee some more actor announcements coming in the following weeks as the production of “The Hobbit” starts to really fire up. To read more go here.
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Comments:
Alindur:
Yay, God bless the Queen :P!
... and what's with the weird writting?
zach:
I dont know.Its weird. i can read it just fine in the editor but it is weird on the forums. Mabey a bug in the conversion from the editor to vb?
zach:
Alright I went and manually fixed it.
HMMcKamikaze:
There should be an announcement about Andy Serkis soon. I know he's been approached too, and he's already shown interest.
zach:
Yep, I bet he will be the next.
Freek:
Well its good that there will be continuity with the actors at least. Hopefully the same will go for the rest of the movie in terms of the setting and storyline.
zach:
Well Del Toro has stated that if you didnt like PJ's version you wont like his, so I thik he intends to stay close to pj's version.
Leggy:
Ateowe:
andy serkis has already confirmed that he is part of the hobbit - at least he considers himself part of the project - even if the official announcement from the studio hasnt come yet. he recently added The Hobbit to his film listings on his personal website Serkis.com
|UEF|SPINNE840:
ok thats a good news
HMMcKamikaze:
Now I guess the only other recurring characters is Bilbo. We'll have to see what they do about that considering Ian Holm's age. Hopefully they get a good replacement since I highly doubt Ian will be for the part.
zach:
Well he is REALLY old now, so I think they will find someone new.
Grizzlez:
I think he is 76 now, so I don't see him in two big films that require bilbo to do a fair bit of action. Wonder who they will get.
zach:
I dunno, some sites have said elijah Wood but that would be weird.
Grizzlez:
OMG that would be messed up if they did that, they need someone not related to the characters. It would be like redoing LoTR with Ian (Gandalf) as Saruman. The actors have built up a role/expectation or the middle earth films so playing a different part would be quite awkward for a lot of people to be able to change those around films. Because the hobbit was a fair bit before LoTR they could get someone who looks sort of like Ian Holms to play the role without too much confusion.
zach:
Yea I agree so I hope its someoen totally new.
Freek:
They won't use Elijah Wood to play Bilbo, not with this budget and producer.
Grizzlez:
I wouldn't even say they need to be considered as much Freek. Just the idea of 'Frodo' as we all know him suddenly being Bilbo-a totally different character that needs to be different from his relative. It would be like an Eddie Murphy film where he tries to play everyone :p
Rook672:
Does anyone know the due date ? (a rough guess is fine)
it'll probably be something like 3 yrs from now, it takes forever to make a movie
Freek:
2010 for the Hobbit and 2011 for the other LotR prequel.
Jinn Master:
They need to pick an unknown- preferably a skilled broadway actor who hasn't done any movies.
Rook672: