Breaking News: The Hobbit!

Posted on June 11, 2010. Filed under: News | Tags: Andy Serkis, Elijah Wood, Guillermo Del Toro, Ian McKellen, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit |

Turns out twitter can sometimes be useful for more than just finding out what people had for breakfast.

Here’s the latest from @ianmckellen118:

“Hobbit” sets are ready, script ready and movie is casting this month. Fans are not to worry.

The films will get made. I suspect we’ll start shooting at end of this year.

Fiercely protective of Tolkien as I am, it’s good to know that the right people are getting involved.  Bringing Ian McKellen back was always a must, and with rumours that Andy Serkis is in too, along with  Jackson, Boyens and Walsh writing the screenplay, I’m starting to relax enough to get excited.  The big question now is who will direct, after Guillermo Del Toro was forced to quit earlier this year:

“In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming “The Hobbit,” I am faced with the hardest decision of my life. After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures. I remain grateful to Peter, Fran and Philippa Boyens, New Line and Warner Brothers and to all my crew in New Zealand. I’ve been privileged to work in one of the greatest countries on earth with some of the best people ever in our craft and my life will be forever changed. The blessings have been plenty, but the mounting pressures of conflicting schedules have overwhelmed the time slot originally allocated for the project. Both as a co-writer and as a director, I wlsh the production nothing but the very best of luck and I will be first in line to see the finished product. I remain an ally to it and its makers, present and future, and fully support a smooth transition to a new director”.

Source

I really hope this movie lives up to the almost impossible expectations it has riding on it.  The fact that it’s being split into two parts already rankles me, because it seems like a studio that knows it’s onto a good thing trying to get as much money as possible, but that aside, there really is potential for another sensational film here.

All we need now is the casting of the right actor to play Bilbo.  I’m actually campaigning for a relative unknown.  Everyone dismissed Elijah Wood as a child actor who had no chance of carrying a film like LOTR.  Let’s prove them wrong again.