Official The Hobbit thread

[Boom]

I've got my hopes up for Bill Nighy.

His voice has a pompous, serpent-like quality - both mocking and hypnotic.

 

[regwec]

I seem to recall Jeremy Irons' voice being the most impressive thing about "The Lion King", back from my distant childhood, before I was jaded, disillusioned, disappointed and depressed.

I'm sticking with him for now.

 

[Octoberist]

I'm for Bill Nighy as well.

 

[craigdbfan]

Jeremy Irons, Bill Nighy are still great choices too.

The best recommendations I've seen so far are those two mentioned by you gentlemen along with Gary Oldman who I also think is another strong voice actor.

I don't think we lose with any of the actors so far recommended.

 

[Boom]

I seem to recall Jeremy Irons' voice being the most impressive thing about "The Lion King", back from my distant childhood, before I was jaded, disillusioned, disappointed and depressed.

I laughed .

 

[regwec]

I laughed .

 

[Octoberist]

Film scouts hunt for Dunedin hobbits

Sir Peter Jackson's talent scouts will visit Dunedin to fill a tall order for a long list of short people to work on his next big movie.
Production company Wingnut Films is looking for short and tall people to play scale doubles for the speaking cast of The Hobbit.

It has announced a casting call for the Edgar Centre on Sunday and yesterday warned aspiring actors who were either too short or too tall not to apply.
Scouts would only consider men aged 17-55 who are between 128cm and 158cm tall, or taller than 210cm, and women between 128cm and 153cm tall.
Confirming the details, a Wingnut spokesman said scale doubles would appear in some wide shots, or with other actors when those actors needed to be made to look taller or shorter, he said.

That meant the company needed short people who could be hobbits, and tall people to make shorter actors look even more hobbit-scaled.
They would go on a long-list of people who might be used "in the event we visit a location during filming ... or so we know who to go to if we are short".
The call did not mean The Hobbit would be filmed in coastal Otago.

Locations were still being finalised and the company needed to be ready for anything, the spokesman said.
Even with the height restrictions, the doubles would still be taller than the hobbits of J. R. R. Tolkien's books.
In his prologue to The Lord Of The Rings, Tolkein said the average height of a hobbit was three feet six inches, or about 106.6cm.
In New Zealand, the average height for men is about 177cm and for women, 165cm.

The Hobbit casting call takes place at the Edgar Centre, at 10am-12.30pm and 2pm-3.30pm on Sunday.

source: http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2011/01/12/41668-film-scouts-hunt-for-dunedin-hobbits/
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/144025/film-scouts-hunt-dunedin-hobbits

 

[Whiskey Tango]

I'm a very tall person! I bet I could get in too if I wasn't on the other side of the planet.

 

[Octoberist]

Rob Kazinsky seems to be heading to New Zealand:


SOURCE: http://***********/RobertKazinsky


And a couple of comments from Elijah Wood:

http://collider.com/elijah-wood-interview-the-hobbit-wilfred/69749/
http://movies.ign.com/articles/114/1143597p1.html

Thanks for the info. And for those who have missed these tibbits.

 

[flash13]

Have they cast Bard (The guy who kills Smaug) yet? I haven't seen anything and its making me worry that they'll just have Legolas kill Smaug instead.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Have they cast Bard (The guy who kills Smaug) yet? I haven't seen anything and its making me worry that they'll just have Legolas kill Smaug instead.

No word on casting yet but replacing Bard w/Legolas is about as likely as Jon Lovitz voicing Smaug.

 

[Jackasscoley15]

No word on casting yet but replacing Bard w/Legolas is about as likely as Jon Lovitz voicing Smaug.

Gotta agree with this. We probably haven't heard anything on Bard yet because he likely won't even show up until the second movie. So there's really nothing to worry about.

 

[Octoberist]

You need Bard because he's like..the only few humans in the book. I'm sure his characterization will be expanded. As much as I love The Hobbit as a novel, it does have some flaws (being Tolkien earlier works) because Bard feels more like a plot device who is introduced abruptly into the book.

He's almost like the precursor to Aragorn, so it doesn't hurt to have him in there.

 

[Ponyboy]

I was corrected by a colleague today... The White Council takes place in Rivendell. There are reasons for that...

 

[regwec]

The gourmet food, Olympic standard swimming pool, and trouser press in each room?

 

[Nightmare]

Are we expected to see much of frodo and gollum?

 

[Octoberist]

Frodo not so much but Gollum plays a small but important role in the film. When I say small, it's not a mere cameo per say.

 

[Spider-Who?]

Are we expected to see much of frodo and gollum?

Supposedly, Frodo will only be in the prologue of each movie. As for Gollum, if my memory serves me, he’s really only in one scene of the hobbit, but I wouldn’t doubt PJ to expand upon that in some form to add a little more weight to Gollum’s tale and the ultimate theft by Biblo.

 

[regwec]

Gollum is only in one scene, but he has one of the bigger speaking roles. Bilbo's removal of his ring from the Misty Mountains causes Gollum to venture into the wider world, and be captured first my Sauron and then by Aragorn. So it's an important thread in the plot of LOTR.

 

[Spider-Who?]

Gollum is only in one scene, but he has one of the bigger speaking roles. Bilbo's removal of his ring from the Misty Mountains causes Gollum to venture into the wider world, and be captured first my Sauron and then by Aragorn. So it's an important thread in the plot of LOTR.

think they'll address this in the flick? I'd like to think they will.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

We shall see how much VFX have improved since the Two Towers. Will Gollum be actually motion captured this time? Ala Avatar and Tin Tin?

 

[Arc-Light]

think they'll address this in the flick? I'd like to think they will.

They should...i would think they import the whole encounter with Gollum from the book...that's where Bilbo 1st gets the ring.... how Bilbo gets the ring etc....i want to avoid any book spoilers, but i would hope they put that into the movie.

 

[CGHulk]

We shall see how much VFX have improved since the Two Towers. Will Gollum be actually motion captured this time? Ala Avatar and Tin Tin?

That's what I've been thinking about for the past few years, how much more realistic can they make Gollum? It's almost 8 years since the ROTK, technology has definitely advanced since then.

 

[Octoberist]

even now, Gollum is still a marvelous feat.

 

[regwec]

The riddle scene from The Hobbit will also be in very dim light, which can only help.