Wood Looking Forward to "Family Reunion"

Elijah Wood spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the plans to reprise the role of Frodo Baggins for The Hobbit. He spoke about looking forward to the filming his role in the Fall and how good the script is.

“It’s a rare opportunity to revisit a specific time in my life,” Wood told The Hollywood Reporter. “It feels like I’m going back to a giant family reunion in a way; a lot of the same creative team are involved and a number of the cast are coming back.”

“I read the first script and it’s incredible,” Wood noted. “It definitely expounds upon the book; there are already characters that are cast that are not in the book, so that indicates that it goes slightly outside the boundaries in the structure of the original novel.”

“For a while I was excited just at the notion of going back and seeing everybody and playing the character again,” Wood said. “Then sitting down and reading it I became really genuinely excited about the films they were making. I think they’re going to be amazing.”

Empire Magazine Gandalf Cover

Empire Magazine's August issue feature The Hobbit production include a new image of what they refer to as "Young Gandalf". The magazine might even have new photos that EW didn't release. As for the young reference, it could be a real story point that gets into the characters history or it could simply be an exaggerated statement since Gandalf is 60 years young in the The Hobbit movie. Considering the character is considered to hundreds of years old, 60 years is nothing.

Elijah Explains Frodo Reprisal on Fallon

The Lord of the Rings' Elijah Wood appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on 6/22/11 to promote his new TV series Wilfred. While there he explained what his return to the role of Frodo is for in The Hobbit along with being pleased with improvement in "foot" technology for the costume.

Wood Reveals Details His Role in The Hobbit

In an interview with On The Red Carpet, Elijah Wood provided more details on his and Iam Holm's roles in The Hobbit. As expected, he will serve as a narrator of sorts to the audience as he "reads" from Bilbo's book about his adventures.

"...it's actually a flashforward in time. Frodo is not alive around the time period of 'The Hobbit.' It's about 60 years before Frodo's birth, I think. So ultimately, myself and Ian Holm, who played Bilbo in 'The Lord of the Rings,' will have some scenes together that will precede the 'Hobbit' time."

"Bilbo actually wrote 'The Hobbit' in a book called 'There and Back Again: A Hobbit's Tale,' so I think there might be something to do with that book that he's writing," he said. "It's very much keeping the integrity. Frodo does not exist within the context of the time period of 'The Hobbit.'"

"I'm actually heading down in October," Wood said. "I'm really excited. I love New Zealand so it's always a pleasure to revisit New Zealand. It still very much feels like a home, a second home for me. And the opportunity to come back and work with largely the same crew and creative team and a number of the same actors is really exciting. It feels like a giant family reunion, in a way."

First Look at The Hobbit

Entertainment Weekly has posted three images from the set of The Hobbit that provide the first look at Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins along with a look at the dwarves and Gandalf.

Lego Barad-dûr Creation

Kevin Walter has re-created in Lego the fortress of Sauron called Barad-dûr from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. That was the structure that the Eye of Sauron rested on during the trilogy and collapsed at the end when the One Ring was destroyed. The highly detailed creation even has the Eye in Lego. According to The Brick Brothers, the creation took 50,000 Lego to build and had to be built nearly from scratch when it was totaled during shipping to Brickworld a week ago. The full gallery of images can be found here.

Jackson Announces Two More Cast Members

Sir Peter Jackson has added a new entry to his official Facebook page confirming the casting of two actors and announcing the addition of two more. To sum, he confirms the casting of Luke Evans as Bard and Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug (but not the Necromancer). As for the new additions, Lost's Evangeline Lilly has joined as Tauriel a Woodland Elf (not a character in the book) while Barry Humphries (Finding Nemo) will do the motion capture and voice for the CGI Goblin King.

Yikes! I can finally get back to some postings! We've finished our first block of shooting and moved straight into location scouting. More on that soon... But today, I'm thrilled to announce two new cast members who will be joining us for our second block of shooting.

Cumberbatch's Hobbit Roles Revealed

Deadline is reporting that Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) has been cast as the voice of Smaug the Dragon and as the voice of the Necromancer. He will also perform the motion capture for Smaug. He was rumored last month to have been cast as Smaug but this is the first report to indicate that it is true.

Luke Evans Joins The Hobbit Cast

Peter Jackson has found his Bard. Deadline is reporting that Luke Evans has signed on to play Bard the Grim for The Hobbit. In the novel, the character has a small but pivotal role in the battle against Smaug the Dragon but that role could have been expanded for the movies. At this point most of the major novel roles have been filled leaving only the voice of Smaug. That role really doesn't have to be filled until post-production but Deadline says that Bill Nighy (Underworld) is the frontrunner.

Wood, Astin Talk The Hobbit

In two seperate interviews with Access Hollywood, The Lord of the Rings actors Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins) and Sean Astin (Sam Gamgee) spoke about The Hobbit in the two videos below. Elijah's interview had the most info as he is briefly reprising his role for The Hobbit. He said he is heading to New Zealand in October, has not read the script but aware of his part which is "a small little piece". He is mostly looking forward to seeing Peter Jackson, the cast and the crew that he worked with about 12 years ago. The Sean Astin interview is mostly just him hangng out somewhere talking about the product displays but towards the end he explains that he will not be in The Hobbit film since his character wasn't born yet.

Stephen Fry on Hobbit Role

In an interview with the BBC, Stephen Fry discusses his recent casting as the Major of Laketown for The Hobbit. Below is some of what he said or click here for the audio.

"It doesn't involve putting hair on my feet. At least, as far as I know," he told BBC Radio 5 live. Fry described the character as being "somewhere between Mayor Quimby in The Simpsons...and Adam West in Family Guy."

"Congratulations, dear Watson"

Sir Ian McKellen has updated his The Hobbit blog with a new post called "Congratulations, dear Watson." The post is a congratulations to Benedict Cumberbatch joining the cast of The Hobbit. The title is a reference to Martin Freeman who plays Dr. Watson to Cumberbatch's Sherlock in the BBC TV series Sherlock. The role he will play but McKellen did write, "The sleuths are the third double-act in The Hobbit." indicating that his role might come towards the end of the story in the battle against Smaug and Laketown. Something the One Ring theorized last week. Click here to read McKellen's full post.