Re: EL HOBBIT
http://screenrant.com/dominic-monaghan- ... -rob-5086/
It seems we may see some of our favorite hobbits make a return to the big screen among other potential returning characters in the upcoming Hobbit films (probably the second one IF it happens).
Back in August, we wrote about Peter Jackson and his two partners in crime finalizing their deal to write the two Hobbit films with Guillermo Del Toro. In that article, it was referenced that Del Toro promised some casting news by December… But that has come and gone and there hasn’t really been any official casting news as of yet.
Later, in October we wrote an update on the writing of the films from an interview with Del Toro - in it he spoke about the creative process and how he and the writing team were all working together on each film as opposed to splitting it up amongst themselves (as they had originally planned to do with Del Toro writing just the second of the pair of films). He confirmed writing was going well and on schedule.
In that post, I talked about how the novel would be split up amongst the two films and it was confirmed by Guillermo that [Spoiler ahead!] the first movie would end with Smaug dying. By our deduction, this occurs in the 14th chapter of the novel, so that leaves only 5 or so chapters of content for the second movie.
This is great news for us fans of the Lord of the Rings trilogy as it means we should have plenty of screen time in the second film for it to act as a “bridge” film. This second movie would supposedly tie-in The Hobbit with the trilogy we’ve already seen and loved, allowing all the films to be watched consecutively as a well-flowing pentalogy. It would hopefully jump forward many years after the events of The Hobbit and show us the events leading up to the beginning of the Fellowship.
Why is this important? Well, it means we could (and hopefully!) will see the return of some (many?) of our favorite characters from the trilogy!
We already know Sir Ian McKellen is a must to reprise his role as the lovable wizard Gandalf and that Andy Serkis would be bringing back his Gollum charm to the CGI-animated character. Seeing other characters make a return as well (who are not actually in The Hobbit novel) would be quite a nice surprise to fans.
In our “Weekend Movie News Wrap Up” in late December, we spoke a little bit about Viggo Mortensen discussing his involvement in the project. At the time he had yet to be contacted for the role but he had this to say to MTV:
“I haven’t heard anything. Ian is very proactive. He’s been banging that drum!. It was a very important project to all of us and especially to him I think. He wants to make sure Gandalf is in there and in there early! I’m going to cross that bridge when I get to it. Obviously, I would rather have the chance to play that role myself since I originated it on film than have someone else do it.”
It sounds like he’s interested in doing it and I’m sure the entire fan base would be very interested in seeing Aragorn on screen again.
Dominic Monaghan in The HobbitNow, it looks like Aragorn may not be alone as a potential returnee. In speaking with MTV at the Sundance Film Festival the other day, Dominic Monaghan (Merry from LOTR and Charlie from Lost) says that the producers of The Hobbit want to bring back some of the fan-favorite characters.
“They really want us to come back, and I think there’s a really strong chance that we might be back”
In the interview, he also discusses how it would be easy for him to return to the mindset of being a playful hobbit and that it wouldn’t take much preparation for him to return to the role he and so many others love.
“I’ve been chatting with Pete and [writers] Fran [Walsh] and Philippa [Boyens] about the chance of us coming back…I think the fans of the first three ‘Lord of the Rings’ films will be charmed by going back into the world.”
Dominic also discusses the idea of extra sequels/prequels not living up to their predecessors as well as the notion of “going back to the well too many times” *cough* Star Wars *cough* and but explains it would be different for this project even though they will be adding many scenes not from the novel to allow these characters to return.
For the complete interview and Dominic’s thoughts on The Hobbit, click here.
I’m stoked on this idea and the more characters they bring back, the better I say. As I said in a previous article, I’d love to see Sean Bean back as Boromir and David Wenham as Faramir, among the many other awesome characters I’d like to see return.
As of yet, there is no word on the other three hobbits - Stay tuned for more!
Are you excited about the two Hobbit films and would you like to see many of the characters make a re-appearance?
The first of The Hobbit films is due out in December, 2011 and the second in December, 2012.