Ian McKellen Almost Ditched Playing Gandalf in The Hobbit Movie

[Chesterfield Snapdragon McFisticuffs]

I don't know, I always thought that Richard Harris made a better Dumbledore than Gambon. He just seemed way...calmer. Of course Gambon was still great but it's the little things that make movies memorable, Dumbledore was the best part of the first two for sure.

Nailed it! Glad I'm not the only one who thought Richard had a more calming, mystic air about him. Gambon seemed to be too emotional. That said, if Ian couldn't be brought back for Gandalf, Gambon would have made an excellent replacement.
I will never understand actors. I would LOVE for people to remember me for playing a character that everyone knows. Okay, you run the risk of getting type cast, but still.

It works better if you're playing an interesting character. Think of it another way. Would you like to be remembered as Joey from Friends? Or Ross? Those guys have found it impossible to get out of their shells because each of them played characters they'll never be forgotten as. Maybe the only reason that Jennifer Aniston got a proper career afterwards was because of (Brad Pitt) and that she was the only normal one on the show.
To summarise, it works both ways.

 

[Greg Tito]

Wait, why's Elijah Wood in the hobbit? Frodo wasn't even a character in the book.

I don't want to give away any spoilers, but if you're interested check here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106762-Elijah-Woods-Frodo-Will-Appear-in-The-Hobbit-Movies

 

[tunderball]

Somebody may have to correct me on this because I'll be the first to admit that I'm not entirely 100% on the Lord of the Rings timeline but if they are doing the whole telling different stories through Frodo. I'd kind of like to see a young Aragorn fighting with a very young Theoden I know they mention it in the films, not sure if it's in the books though been so long since I've read them.
Just an idea although I'm sure the Hobbit would take place before this.

 

[Pilkingtube]

Those are rather good news.

But I still haven't got over the fact that Jackson replaced Del Toro as the director of the movie!
[small]that's some bullshit, I tell you. It should've been...[/small]

They better be good with the makeup.. else it's gonna look like Gandalf is ageing backwards.

I could tell you that Gandalf isn't just an old guy who does magic. He's a maia, kind of a semi-god. Without getting into to that too deeply... he has just chosen the form of this old man with a poor posture. Also, he's so very old that, the time between Bilbo leaves his house to go holler at Smaug and Frodo sees the first glimpse of The Mountain of Doom, is just a brief moment, when talking about aging. Which he doesn't actually do.

So, we've got Frodo, Galadriel, and Legolas all appearing in The Hobbit, eh? Hopefully Jackson & Co. will save some room for characters that were actually in the story.

Indeed... I'll be shaking my head until the movie comes out.

0_o.. Me thinks you might need to lighten up a little. ;D

 

[SonicWaffle]

It was already reported that he's reprising the role of Legolas. Not a cameo appearance, but not a starring role either. I'd imagine that means he'll be there during the days the party is at Rivendell.

Legolas was the son of Thranduil, the king of the wood elves that imprison Thorin and the Dwarves on the west side of Mirkwood. So I assume that Orlando Bloom would be seen there and not in Rivendell.

Don't the elves have some sort of party in Mirkwood, which is the cover for Bilbo sneaking all the barrels out? IIRC a few elves get plastered on Thranduil's special wine and pass out, which would make for a fairly amusing Orlando Bloom cameo, staggering around in the background drunkenly attempting to hit on female elves before puking into a pot plant :-D

 

[SonicWaffle]

It works better if you're playing an interesting character. Think of it another way. Would you like to be remembered as Joey from Friends? Or Ross? Those guys have found it impossible to get out of their shells because each of them played characters they'll never be forgotten as. Maybe the only reason that Jennifer Aniston got a proper career afterwards was because of (Brad Pitt) and that she was the only normal one on the show.
To summarise, it works both ways.

Jennifer Aniston has hardly had a "proper career" - she just seems to do paint-by-numbers romantic "comedy" these days.

David Schwimmer, on the other hand, has been in Madagascar (which IIRC was pretty sucessful), he starred in the hugely underrated Big Nothing, and had a prominent role in Band of Brothers.

Personally, I'd rather have those titles on my resume than Along Came Polly or The Break-Up. Then again, Matt LeBlanc was in Lost In Space, so I'm not sure which of the two have it worse

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

Good news indeed.

Would've felt wierd to watch someone else play Gandalf.

 

[Xocrates]

Quick question: Is Peter Jackson planning anything original in the near future? Since Lord of the Rings there hasn't been anything has there?

He directed King Kong and The Lovely Bones since then.

 

[Owlslayer]

This made me happy.
But still: Please, God or anyone else, make it so that the movie will be awesome and not sucky.
Please...

 

[skywalkerlion]

Oh HELL FUCKING YES!!!

WE GOT GANDALF BACK! THIS MOVIE WILL ROCK!

Yep, upon reading this I'm more excited for The Hobbit than for Captain America! AWESOME

 

[Death-of-Penguins]

It was already reported that he's reprising the role of Legolas. Not a cameo appearance, but not a starring role either. I'd imagine that means he'll be there during the days the party is at Rivendell.

Legolas was the son of Thranduil, the king of the wood elves that imprison Thorin and the Dwarves on the west side of Mirkwood. So I assume that Orlando Bloom would be seen there and not in Rivendell.

Don't the elves have some sort of party in Mirkwood, which is the cover for Bilbo sneaking all the barrels out? IIRC a few elves get plastered on Thranduil's special wine and pass out, which would make for a fairly amusing Orlando Bloom cameo, staggering around in the background drunkenly attempting to hit on female elves before puking into a pot plant :-D

This. Might seem odd in the movie, but be damned it'd be funny. Maybe we can hope for a deleted scene of him doing this.

 

[JDKJ]

So much for casting some people of color.

http://tinyurl.com/4ggt2zb

I, for one, am glad there's no affirmative-action type stuff going on with the casting. A high-fantasy movie based on a book written by an Oxford professor who was born in the 19th century is not the place to start worrying about ethnic diversity.

Even though that Oxford professor in his book described the Harfoot Hobbits as being brown of skin? Yeah, let's not worry about ethnic diversity -- or accurate portrayals of Tolkien's Hobbits, either.

Contrary to the Critical Miss strip of which you're obviously a fan, casting the Harfoot Hobbits with brown-skinned actors wouldn't be "inauthentic." It'd actually be a more authentic casting -- at least it would if we're trying to give Tolkien's own descriptions any credit.

 

[Xaryn Mar]

So much for casting some people of color.

http://tinyurl.com/4ggt2zb

I, for one, am glad there's no affirmative-action type stuff going on with the casting. A high-fantasy movie based on a book written by an Oxford professor who was born in the 19th century is not the place to start worrying about ethnic diversity.

Even though that Oxford professor in his book described the Harfoot Hobbits as being brown of skin? Yeah, let's not worry about ethnic diversity -- or accurate portrayals of Tolkien's Hobbits, either.

Contrary to the Critical Miss strip of which you're obviously a fan, casting the Harfoot Hobbits with brown-skinned actors wouldn't be "inauthentic." It'd actually be a more authentic casting -- at least it would if we're trying to give Tolkien's own descriptions any credit.

That would be brown skinned as in people from the European part of the Mediterranean, i.e. Italians, Greeks and perhaps (but I doubt it somewhat, don't know why) Spanish and Portuguese.

They are brown skinned because they are outside so much and living further south then the rest of the Hobbits.

 

[JDKJ]

So much for casting some people of color.

http://tinyurl.com/4ggt2zb

I, for one, am glad there's no affirmative-action type stuff going on with the casting. A high-fantasy movie based on a book written by an Oxford professor who was born in the 19th century is not the place to start worrying about ethnic diversity.

Even though that Oxford professor in his book described the Harfoot Hobbits as being brown of skin? Yeah, let's not worry about ethnic diversity -- or accurate portrayals of Tolkien's Hobbits, either.

Contrary to the Critical Miss strip of which you're obviously a fan, casting the Harfoot Hobbits with brown-skinned actors wouldn't be "inauthentic." It'd actually be a more authentic casting -- at least it would if we're trying to give Tolkien's own descriptions any credit.

That would be brown skinned as in people from the European part of the Mediterranean, i.e. Italians, Greeks and perhaps (but I doubt it somewhat, don't know why) Spanish and Portuguese.

They are brown skinned because they are outside so much and living further south then the rest of the Hobbits.

Regardless of what makes them browned-skinned (we can just as readily surmise that they fell victim to the same disease which afflicts the cast of "Jersey Shore"), the fact remains that they were described by Tolkien as brown of skin and to cast them with actors fair of skin results in a certain amount of inauthenticity.

And, as a matter of fact, Tolkien describes the Harfoots as one of three distinct "breeds" of Hobbits. Which tends to let all the air out of your "brown skinned because they are outside so much and living further south" theory. If we take Tolkien at his word, they are brown-skinned because they differ genetically from the other two breeds.

 

[Greg Tito]

It was already reported that he's reprising the role of Legolas. Not a cameo appearance, but not a starring role either. I'd imagine that means he'll be there during the days the party is at Rivendell.

Legolas was the son of Thranduil, the king of the wood elves that imprison Thorin and the Dwarves on the west side of Mirkwood. So I assume that Orlando Bloom would be seen there and not in Rivendell.

Don't the elves have some sort of party in Mirkwood, which is the cover for Bilbo sneaking all the barrels out? IIRC a few elves get plastered on Thranduil's special wine and pass out, which would make for a fairly amusing Orlando Bloom cameo, staggering around in the background drunkenly attempting to hit on female elves before puking into a pot plant :-D

This. Might seem odd in the movie, but be damned it'd be funny. Maybe we can hope for a deleted scene of him doing this.

No more odd than the drinking contest in the Extended Version of The Two Towers. Except Legolas drinks 20 mugs of ale and only starts to feel tingly in fingers. Contrast that with Gimli getting completely soused.

But I think that the drinking part in the Hobbit was only in the Rankin/Bass animated film, but I'd have to reread (again) it to be sure.

 

[RJ Dalton]

It's been a while since I've read The Hobbit, was Saruman even in that book? I know Legolas and Galadriel weren't, but I also don't remember Saruman being anywhere.
Looking forward to seeing Beorn, though.