In unsurprising but awesome news, busy man Guillermo del Toro confirmed today some of what most fans have been expecting for a long time in regards to some role reprisals in The Hobbit by a few of our favorite actors and characters from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
According to del Toro in a BBC Radio interview with regards to The Hobbit, Hugo Weaving will again be playing Lord Elrond, Sir Ian McKellen will be back as our favorite bearded wizard, Gandalf the Grey, and last but not least, the talented Andy Serkis will be back as Gollum.
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Last week, del Toro revealed that they’ve narrowed down the candidates of who will play Bilbo Baggins to just one and that we’d likely be hearing about that soon. With these casting confirmations today, and updates of the movie popping up seemingly on a weekly basis, I expect we’ll find out who our little Hobbit will be fairly soon, or at the very latest, at San Diego Comic Con next month.
The BBC Radio interview didn’t just focus on who’s playing who though, del Toro also again talked about how the films will be split up with no ‘bridge’ film, and what they’ll focus on (which we reported on last week):
“There is a whole other chapter, so to speak, which is the comings and going of Gandalf which are dealt with, people that know the lore know that Gandalf was delayed with a crisis… with a character that is very shady called the Necromancer that proves to be Sauron.”
Another tidbit of info del Toro revealed is that after eight months of working on the design for Smaug the dragon, they’ve just hit on the basics of his engineering and it’ll be probably another half a year at least, before they’re able to show him off in detail.
Guillermo’s conversation with host Simon Mayo also touched on a few of his many projects listed in development. Here are some of the key points:
- Hellboy 3 is unlikely due to Ron Perlman being averse to wearing the prosthetics again.
- He’ll be producing, not directing, Jekyll and Hyde
- He’ll be directing Frankenstein and his one of his go-to guys, Doug Jones, will play the monster.
- Blade 4 with Wesley Snipes won’t happen because of legal issues between Snipes and New Line, so del Toro won’t be directing it.
That’s it for now. Stay tuned for more updates on The Hobbit and Guillermo del Toro’s many other projects.
What do you think of these updates and are you excited to see some familiar faces returning to The Hobbit?
The first of The Hobbit films is due out in December, 2011 and the second in December, 2012.
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20 Comments
Cool, i’m glad Hugo,Serkis and Sir Ian Mckellan is back
That’s great news!
on a side note, I am disappointed that Hellboy 3 is unlikely… I really liked the Hellboy 1 and 2. Maybe Perlman will change his mind… if there is no Perlman than there is no Hellboy
Definitely awesome to have Mckellen, Weaving, and Serkis back.
I heard a while mike mignola was reluctant to have Guillermo complete his trilogy
Because DelToro planned a dark end To his story.
And Mignola thought that would conflict with his own plans for Hellboy in the comics.
Frankenstein is one of my all-time favorite novels though I really like the original film from the 30’s it’s just plainly not a honest adaptation of the book.
I hear Del Toro loves the book and plans to keep it faithful and honestly right now is there a more exciting filmmaker to emerge this decade than Mr. Del Toro.
Some good news on Hobbit, but shame about Hellboy, especially as the second one was meant to lead to things in a third movie.
Big fan of Mayo and Dr Kermode as well.
Good news on the casting for The Hobbit. Definitely looking forward to that film. Really, really crappy news about Hellboy, though. I was looking forward to Hellboy 3. We can all cross our fingers and hope that Ron changes his mind.
On a side note, did anyone see del Toro on Craig Ferguson last week? That was a fun interview. Heck, Craig Ferguson has the funniest late night show on TV.
oops..that was me ^
It’s too bad they don’t have $50 million to offer, because Perlman makes a great Hellboy.
I’m still dreaming of Martin Freeman as Bilbo. Jesus, that’d be dream casting. I just hope Jackson and del Toro don’t play Bilbo off as young and hot. Bilbo isn’t an adventurer. He needs to look awkward wearing the mantle of hero, you know? Despite the middling screenplay and clanky direction for “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, Freeman as Arthur Dent was spot-on. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him pulling faces of dimwitted, gobsmacked incredulity.
Can’t wait to see Smaug, my favorite part of the Hobbit. Would be nice to see New Line and Snipes get over the lawsuit for Blade 4 to redeem the franchises, the 3 film was a HUGE let down.
I realt hate Blade; you see the first part you see them all just with deferent enemy, but it the same all. (great start, in the middle he gets week and get boost up and fight and the end same all as well) look like Spiderman (3 section of the movie, great start blaa blaa blaa).
Something to look forward to! I hope that Guillermo Del Toro keeps the look of Middle Earth and Hobbiton the same! Do we know if he might be filming in New Zealand again? The scenery starred as much as the actors.
Maybe because I never read the comics but Blade was very entertaining. However a 4 might be a little much, I would like to see Blade do some crossover work with other comic heros. Spider-Man & Blade duking it out with Morbius?
Wow, I could not be more excited. The drought of sucky, uninteresting movies is ending! I expect “Jekyll and Hyde” to be epic..
I was so psyched when I heard Serkis was reprising his role of Gollum for this film. He is by far my fave character and actor in the whole story. You can’t have The Hobbit without Gollum. This is a dark story so having Del Toro take the wheel is genius. I hope they pick a good Bilbo, though. Kenny Baker would make a good Bilbo put I’m afraid he’s a little too old for the part.
Glad to hear they are keeping some of the original cast it wouldn’t be the same without them.
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