"The Hobbit" is finally happening! - To go into production at MGM

[MovieWes]

The latest images of the dwarves Nori (Jed Brophy - left), Ori (Adam Brown - middle), and Dori (Mark Hadlow - right).

[OscarGuy]

It's possible that this "random number of achievements" thing may backfire and result in a scuttling of it, sending us back to five. We shall see.

[MovieWes]

If the quality is up to par with the original trilogy, I don't see any reason why the Academy would ignore it. It's really hard to capture lightning in a bottle twice, so they will have to work really hard to live up to expectations. I feel that, especially with an expanded field, it shouldn't be too difficult for The Hobbit films to be nominated for Best Picture if they are of the same quality as The Lord of the Rings. Let's not forget that the Academy nominated The Godfather Part III for Best Picture, even though it wasn't anywhere near the quality of the first two films.

I also expect that at the very least it is going to win a boatload of technical awards, just as LOTR did.

[OscarGuy]

Will this continue Peter Jackson's Tolkien haul at the Oscars? Or do you think the Academy will feel it's been rewarded enough?

[MovieWes]

[MovieWes]

EW.com has posted the first look at the cast in full costume and makeup. I have posted it on CinemaSight for those who are interested...

http://www.cinemasight.com/2011/06/23/e ... he-hobbit/

[MovieWes]

Evangeline Lilly and Barry "Dame Edna" Humphries have joined the cast. Lilly will play a new character, Tauriel, a Mirkwood elf. Humphries will play the Goblin King.

Will Hunphries play Goblin King as Dame Edna?

I don't know, but that would be all kinds of awesome, lol!

[Greg]

Evangeline Lilly and Barry "Dame Edna" Humphries have joined the cast. Lilly will play a new character, Tauriel, a Mirkwood elf. Humphries will play the Goblin King.

Will Hunphries play Goblin King as Dame Edna?

[MovieWes]

Evangeline Lilly and Barry "Dame Edna" Humphries have joined the cast. Lilly will play a new character, Tauriel, a Mirkwood elf. Humphries will play the Goblin King.

Peter Jackson also officially confirmed Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug and Luke Evans as Bard, although they were already announced by Deadline Hollywood a couple days ago. The cast is really taking shape.

[MovieWes]

And just a couple hours later, we can lay all the speculation to rest. Benedict Cumberbatch will be providing the voice of Smaug, as well as facial motion capture. But that's not all. He is also portraying the Necromancer (aka Sauron) as well.

[MovieWes]

British actor Luke Evans, who has appeared in films such as Clash of the Titans and the upcoming The Immortals and The Three Musketeers, has been cast as Bard the Bowman.

I'm guessing this means that Benedict Cumberbatch will indeed voice Smaug.

[MovieWes]

By the way, shouldn't this (and The Dark Knight Rises) thread be moved to the 2012 section?

[MovieWes]

Ian McKellen just updated his blog, confirming that Benedict Cumberbatch has been cast in the films. He doesn't say who he is playing, but my guess is that he is voicing Smaug. He seems to hint at it.

The cat is out of the bag. The actor is named. The latest recruit to the Jackson troops is the superb Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock Holmes to Bilbo's Watson. Martin Freeman let it slip when he picked up his BAFTA. Martin told me he was "chuffed" about the prize. So was the entire crew back here in Wellington; and about Benedict. Now, what can he be playing in The Hobbit? Philippa Boyens showed me a snippet of his screen-test, played in close-up into the camera. It was electrifying, vocally and facially. Yes, what can he be playing?

I worked with Timothy Cumberbatch in a Shaw double-bill in 1966. Perhaps he thought his surname might be a hindrance, because his stage-name was/is Timothy Carlton — a dextrous light comedian with charm and long legs. (Not as long as those of Sian Phillips who was en travestie in the same play, Man of Destiny.) More recently, in Asylum, I worked with Mrs Cumberbatch, Wanda Ventham, one of UK television's most popular stars. Now I get to work with the son — or do I? Depends, of course, what he's playing. The sleuths are the third acting partnership in The Hobbit. The current Sydney Theatre Company production of Uncle Vanya, couples Galadriel and Elrond as Yelena and Astrov. I wish I could see them at the Kennedy Center, Washington DC in August. But then they will both miss The Syndicate. The Royal Shakespeare Company's King Lear came to Wellington in 2007, when I introduced Sylvester McCoy to one of his Dr. Who fans, Peter Jackson. Now Lear and his Fool are a couple of wizards.

— Ian McKellen, Wellington, 31 May 2011

[OscarGuy]

Strange. I had thought they wouldn't be ready until 2013 and 2014...so, 2012 is good news.

[MovieWes]

A whole bunch of news:

Orlando Bloom, Hugo Weaving, and Christopher Lee have officially been confirmed by the studio, although it's been common knowledge for a while that Weaving would be coming back.

But the big news coming out right now is that the films have officially been titled The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again (these titles were actually leaked back in March) and they will be released on December 14, 2012 and December 13, 2013 respectively.