Martin Freeman has done really well for himself since playing Tim in "The Office" (the original and best)Martin Freeman to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit
Martin Freeman Freeman "was born" to play Bilbo Baggins, Jackson said
The Office actor Martin Freeman will play Bilbo Baggins in two-part Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit, director Peter Jackson has announced.
He said in a statement there had "only ever been one Bilbo Baggins for us".
Freeman, 39, was "intelligent, funny, surprising and brave - exactly like Bilbo", Jackson added.
Meanwhile, Jackson's wife Fran Walsh has reportedly told a radio station filming could move to the UK because of an industrial dispute in New Zealand
Jackson said he was "incredibly proud" to be able to announce that Freeman would be the hobbit.
Richard Armitage, Aidan Turner, Rob Kazinsky and Graham McTavish Richard Armitage, Aidan Turner, Rob Kazinsky and Graham McTavish will all appear in The Hobbit
"There are a few times in your career when you come across an actor who you know was born to play a role, but that was the case as soon as I met Martin," Jackson said.
Spooks actor Richard Armitage, 39 - who has a role in the forthcoming film Captain America: The First Avenger - will play Thorin Oakenshield - leader of the dwarves.
Former EastEnders actor Rob Kazinsky, Sean Slater in the soap, will also play a dwarf.
He will appear alongside Irish actor Aidan Turner, who has appeared in BBC Three's Being Human, and British actor Graham McTavish, who has appeared on TV shows including Red Dwarf.
Other dwarves will be played by John Callen, Stephen Hunter, Mark Hadlow and Peter Hambleton.
The films are due to be released in December 2012 and December 2013.
As with the Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, the film had been due to be made in Jackson's native New Zealand.
But on Thursday, film studio Warner Bros said the ongoing pay wrangle with acting unions had "forced us to consider other filming locations for the first time".
Jackson's wife and creative partner Fran Walsh, meanwhile, reportedly told Radio New Zealand that film producers "had people in the UK taking location photographs".
"They've got a huge studio there that Harry Potter has vacated, the ex-Rolls Royce factory, that they say would be perfect for us."
Canada, Australia and the Czech Republic have also been linked with the production.
Peter Jackson Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy won a total of 17 Oscars
Unions representing actors and other workers urged a boycott against the $500m (£319m) production because of the dispute over contracts.
They are trying to force Jackson's production company, Wingnut Films, and Warner Bros to enter negotiations with them over the contracts deadlock.
While major unions including America's Screen Actors Guild and New Zealand Actors' Equity have retreated, smaller unions in New Zealand and Australia are continuing their boycott.
Meanwhile, non-union film workers have hit the streets in New Zealand to demand that filming stays there.
Earlier this month, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said he would be "greatly concerned" if production on Jackson's film was lost.
Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy won 17 Oscars and earned billions of dollars at box offices worldwide.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11604193
Bilbo Freeman
Bilbo Freeman
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Bilbo Freeman
Karl Pilkington for Gollum
Okay... There's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.
Re: Bilbo Freeman
Interesting how long it has taken for the technique of flim making to reach the point where TLoTR and The Hobbit could plausibly be made into movies.
yrs,
rubato
yrs,
rubato
Re: Bilbo Freeman
True'dat.
Disney had the rights to them for decades, but even with their vast animation studios, didn't want to touch it.
Ralph Bashki finally got the rights, and tried to combine live action and animation by 'rotoscoping' the whole film but that was an epic experimental failure.
With CGI advancing to be almost indistinguishable from reality; the magic can finally be captured.
Disney had the rights to them for decades, but even with their vast animation studios, didn't want to touch it.
Ralph Bashki finally got the rights, and tried to combine live action and animation by 'rotoscoping' the whole film but that was an epic experimental failure.
With CGI advancing to be almost indistinguishable from reality; the magic can finally be captured.
Re: Bilbo Freeman
It wasn't just the technical aspects; everyone knew since that ill-fated attempt in the 70s that to do LOTR justice would require three films, which was a huge endeavour and a huge risk (and for all the praise heaped on Jackson's version, there were a lot of purists who were turned off by the changes he made in translating to the screen). The whole thing could have been a bilion dollar flop, and no one before him was prepared to take that risk.
"The dildo of consequence rarely comes lubed." -- Eileen Rose
"Colonialism is not 'winning' - it's an unsustainable model. Like your hairline." -- Candace Linklater
"Colonialism is not 'winning' - it's an unsustainable model. Like your hairline." -- Candace Linklater
Re: Bilbo Freeman
If reaction to The Hobbit footage at Comic-Con is any indication, Peter Jackson has another couple of blockbusters on his hands.
The crowd attending Jackson's Hobbit preview at the fan convention Saturday went wild over a 12-minute reel the filmmaker and his colleagues screened.
Broken into two films, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again, the 3-D epic is Jackson's prequel to his Lord of the Rings trilogy, whose finale won 11 Academy Awards, including best picture and director.
An Unexpected Journey arrives in theaters Dec. 14, with There and Back Again following in December 2013.
Advertisement The films are based on J.R.R. Tolkien's prequel novel, chronicling how tiny hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) acquired the ring of power that causes all the ruckus in The Lord of the Rings, Jackson's three-part adaptation of Tolkien's fantasy saga.
Along with Jackson and Freeman, The Hobbit panel at Comic-Con featured Lord of the Rings co-stars Ian McKellen, who reprises his role as the wizard Gandalf, and Andy Serkis, who is back as twisted ring-keeper Gollum. Also on hand was Richard Armitage, who plays the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield.
Jackson showed 12 minutes of footage that included a chillingly comic exchange between Bilbo and Gollum; a tender moment between McKellen's Gandalf and Cate Blanchett, reprising her role as elf queen Galadriel; and the pivotal moment when Bilbo discovers the ring.
A surprise guest was Elijah Wood, who starred as hobbit Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings.
Freeman said he never felt intimidated as a newcomer to Jackson's team.
"Obviously, you can't really take intimidation or pressure to work with you, because you won't do your best work," Freeman said. "And you won't do your best playing, which is an actor's job."
Jackson shot The Hobbit in 3-D and at 48 frames a second, twice the speed that has been the standard since the 1920s. The higher frame rate allows for greater visual clarity, though it requires costly upgrades to digital projectors for cinemas showing films at that speed.
At the Cinema Con theatre owner's convention in April, Jackson got a mixed reception for preview footage of The Hobbit shown at 48 frames a second. Some observers thought the images were too clear, so realistic that it took away from the magic of the film medium.
At Comic-Con, Jackson chose to show his footage at the traditional 24 frames a second, saying the best way to experience the higher projection speed is by watching an entire movie at 48 frames a second, not just excerpts.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/mov ... z20lLv73Vg
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Bilbo Freeman
~Heh, saw the usual trailer in theaters, with the Roommate and her youngest.
Afters, the girl turned to me and commented, "He [Gandalf] looks like Dumbledore."
Um, Gandalf came first; the Hobbit was written before WWII!
...oh...
I have to give her one of my copies of the book...
Afters, the girl turned to me and commented, "He [Gandalf] looks like Dumbledore."
Um, Gandalf came first; the Hobbit was written before WWII!
...oh...
I have to give her one of my copies of the book...
Re: Bilbo Freeman
Can't wait to see it!
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
~ Carl Sagan
Re: Bilbo Freeman
It;s going to be a trilogy!
The Hobbit film project will be extended to a trilogy, director Peter Jackson has confirmed.
In a posting on his Facebook account, Jackson said: "It has been an unexpected journey indeed, and in the words of Professor Tolkien himself, 'A tale that grew in the telling'."
The first instalment is due out on 14 December and the follow-up on 13 December 2013.
Rumours that a third film was in the works surfaced last week.
They followed Jackson's assertion that he wanted to shoot extra footage, just days after announcing the end of principal photography.
"It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made," he said in his Facebook statement.
"Recently I did just this when we watched for the first time an early cut of the first movie - and a large chunk of the second.
"We were really pleased with the way the story was coming together, in particular, the strength of the characters and the cast who have brought them to life.
"All of which gave rise to a simple question: Do we take this chance to tell more of the tale? And the answer from our perspective as the filmmakers, and as fans, was an unreserved 'Yes'."
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Bilbo Freeman
Nine hours of The Hobbit. I've been a big Tolkien fan since I was 11 years old, and I'm not sure that even I would be prepared to sit through that. (LOTR was another matter; it absolutely required that length to do justice to the story.)
"The dildo of consequence rarely comes lubed." -- Eileen Rose
"Colonialism is not 'winning' - it's an unsustainable model. Like your hairline." -- Candace Linklater
"Colonialism is not 'winning' - it's an unsustainable model. Like your hairline." -- Candace Linklater
Re: Bilbo Freeman
I see where you are coming from, three two hour shows may be bearable, three three hours, not so much.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Bilbo Freeman
Oh, if they were going to three movies I would have assumed it was because they didn't want to tell it in six hours, which would only require two. If they are going to release three two hour movies, it sounds like an attempt to generate 50% additional revenue for the same amount of story.
"The dildo of consequence rarely comes lubed." -- Eileen Rose
"Colonialism is not 'winning' - it's an unsustainable model. Like your hairline." -- Candace Linklater
"Colonialism is not 'winning' - it's an unsustainable model. Like your hairline." -- Candace Linklater
Re: Bilbo Freeman
That's exactly right....it sounds like an attempt to generate 50% additional revenue for the same amount of story.
Because of the huge success of LOTR, they know this is going to be a money making gravy train with a built in audience....
All the footage is shot anyway, might as well pad it with stuff that would have been cut and string it out to three releases....
Re: Bilbo Freeman
The second official trailer for 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey', part 1 of Peter Jackson's Hobbit Trilogy. Starring Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins), Ian McKellen (Gandalf) and Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield). A curious Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, journeys to the Lonely Mountain with a vigorous group of Dwarves to reclaim a treasure stolen from them by the dragon Smaug. Also starring Benedict Cumberbatch (The Necromancer), Elijah Wood (Frodo), Hugo Weaving (Elrond), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), Andy Serkis (Gollum) and Christopher Lee (Saruman).
For the full story read Deadline.com
http://www.deadline.com/2012/09/hot-tra ... d-journey/
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Bilbo Freeman
Can't wait. When is this movie finally coming out, this Christmas??
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké
Re: Bilbo Freeman
Release dates for
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
New Zealand 28 November 2012 (World Premiere)
Australia 14 December 2012
UK 14 December 2012
USA 14 December 2012
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
New Zealand 28 November 2012 (World Premiere)
Australia 14 December 2012
UK 14 December 2012
USA 14 December 2012
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Bilbo Freeman
When I typed 'ticket', I did in fact mean 'ticketS'.
Though I still be a Freeman bitch.
Though I still be a Freeman bitch.
Bah!
