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

MovieWes II · Post by **MovieWes II** » Mon May 23, 2011 4:30 pm

It was announced last night at the TV BAFTA awards that Martin Freeman's Sherlock co-star Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Sherlock Holmes on the show, has signed on for The Hobbit. It is unknown which role he will play, but it is rumored to be either Bard or the voice of Smaug.

Post by **MovieWes** » Wed May 18, 2011 7:16 pm

Some more casting. British actor/comedian Stephen Fry has joined the cast as the Master of Laketown. Additionally, Ryan Gage, who was originally cast as Drogo Baggins (father of Frodo), has been re-cast as a character called Alfrid, who is the Master of Laketown's conniving servant. Finally, Conan Stevens, who can currently be seen on HBO's Game of Thrones, has been cast as Azog the Orc, who is the chieftain of the Moria Orcs.

Post by **HarryGoldfarb** » Thu May 12, 2011 4:23 pm

Yay! Great picture!!

Post by **MovieWes** » Thu May 12, 2011 12:51 pm

We got Gandalf!

Post by **MovieWes** » Sun May 01, 2011 9:38 pm

It's official: Hugo Weaving is back as Elrond!

Post by **OscarGuy** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 10:13 pm

Lee Pace. yay

Post by **MovieWes** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 8:43 pm

Some casting news. New Zealand actor Dean O'Gorman has been chosen to replace Rob Kazinsky as Fili. And actor Lee Pace has been cast as Thranduil.

Post by **jack** » Tue Apr 26, 2011 2:27 pm

MovieWes wrote:Peter Jackson has started uploading his "Hobbit" video blog to Facebook. Here's part 1:

http://www.theonering.net/torwp....bit-set

Needless to say, it looks amazing. I think that The Hobbit films are going to pick up where The Return of the King left off with AMPAS.

I couldn't agree with you more. I was giddy watching that little film.

Post by **MovieWes** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 5:51 pm

Some more news to report from this weekend. Ian Holm has officially joined the cast as Old Bilbo.

However, the BIG story of the weekend is that Rob Kazinsky, who had been cast as the dwarf Fili (the one that Flipp referred to as "that hot little fuck in the light blue v-neck") has dropped out of The Hobbit due to personal reasons, so they are going to have to re-cast the part. This news puts me in mind of Stuart Townsend, who had been cast in The Lord of the Rings as Aragorn, dropping out shortly after filming had begun because he felt that he was too young for the role (this also happened with Ryan Gosling in Jackson's The Lovely Bones, who was replaced by Mark Wahlberg). While Fili isn't as pivotal to The Hobbit as Aragorn was to LOTR, here's hoping they cast someone who is perfectly suited to the role as Viggo Mortensen was in his.

Post by **MovieWes** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 2:38 pm

Peter Jackson has started uploading his "Hobbit" video blog to Facebook. Here's part 1:

http://www.theonering.net/torwp....bit-set

Needless to say, it looks amazing. I think that The Hobbit films are going to pick up where The Return of the King left off with AMPAS.

Post by **MovieWes** » Sat Apr 09, 2011 11:26 am

The only place I've seen that rumor was on IMDB, and I've never believed it simply because IMDB is user edited, so pretty much anyone can add anything they want, regardless of how bogus it is. I think someone added it as a joke because Leonard Nimoy sang the ultra cheesy Ballad of Bilbo Baggins back in the 60s.

Post by **OscarGuy** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 1:24 pm

So I guess it was just a rumor that Leonard Nimoy was going to voicing Smaug?

Post by **MovieWes** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 12:52 pm

Orlando Bloom has confirmed he is coming back to reprise the role of Legolas. And someone close to the production has recently hinted the John Rhys-Davies has been cast as the voice of Smaug.

Post by **MovieWes** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 1:28 pm

A tiny bit of casting news... Flight of the Conchords star Bret McKenzie, who inexplicably rose to popularity on the Internet for a two second cameo (literally) in The Fellowship of the Ring (fans dubbed him Figwit, which stands for "Frodo is great... who is that?!?") during the Council of Elrond scene, and later given a brief speaking role in The Return of the King, has been cast in The Hobbit as a Rivendell elf named Lindir. I'm guessing that this is just a cameo and nothing more, although he'll get slightly more screen time than he did in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (which I'm guessing, if you add it all up between his two appearances, is under 20 seconds).

Edited By MovieWes on 1302114761

Post by **MovieWes** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 12:55 pm

flipp525 wrote:
MovieWes wrote:Also, last week, the entire cast was in New Zealand for a photo op and press conference. Here is the cast photo of Bilbo and the 13 dwarves and the audio from the press conference...

http://www.theonering.net/audio/TORN-021111-Hobbit-Press.mp3
Who is that hot little fuck in the light blue v-neck? The only time this thread has been interesting to me.

Not a fan of Lord of the Rings Flipp?

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