The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

WolfForager

Sad Professor wrote: »

Evangeline Lilly has joined the cast. She'll be playing an elf.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/peter-jackson/the-hobbit-casting-update/10150286515141558

The hot one from Lost? This is good news indeed!

Mellor

Phony Scott wrote: »

Is Peter Jackson throwing weight back on? There and back again is such an apt title!

Not really sure what you mean by this?

maquiladora

Barry Humphries will provide the voice & facial motion capture for the Goblin King. Genius casting.

johnny_ultimate

Am I the only one thinking this cast is getting a bit top-heavy at this point? It's nice to see everyone back, and some new faces (and I doubt anyone has any issue with Evangeline Lilly's face!) but aren't there going to have to be a **** load of plot contrivances and new material to fit everything in?

It seemed stretched at two film initially, now it doesn't seem like enough :pac:

slave1

Sad Professor wrote: »

Evangeline Lilly has joined the cast. She'll be playing an elf.

Deadly, little bit of fresh sweat on her brow and it's hard to beat her on the big screen

Mindkiller

So the actual Hobbit story itself won't be fit into one of the movies? So we won't get to see Smaug the Magnificent for god knows how long? Bah

I had thought that the second movie was going to be used for all the non book stuff, the stuff from Tolkien's appendices etc.

Really interested in who will be voicing the dragon though.

edit, wait, turns out that the guy from Sherlock is playing Smaug. Kind of disappointed with that. Wanted to hear someone with a really distinct voice do it.

Sad Professor

Mindkiller wrote: »

I had thought that the second movie was going to be used for all the non book stuff, the stuff from Tolkien's appendices etc.

It seems that was the plan originally, but when del Toro came on board he decided to integrate the events of the second film into the main narrative of The Hobbit. We'll see how it turns out, but I would have a preferred a shorter, tighter version of The Hobbit rather than the 6 hour epic that Jackson is likely to deliver.

Conall Cernach

Sad Professor wrote: »

Evangeline Lilly has joined the cast. She'll be playing an elf.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/peter-jackson/the-hobbit-casting-update/10150286515141558

Arrgh! This means that Jackson is inventing characters to insert into the story. There is not one female elf mentioned in the book. Now I'm not opposed to making some of the warriors female or even changing the sex of the butler or prison guard but when they have a famous actress that means that they'll have to expand on the role and add in extra dialogue etc. In my opinion one of the failings of the LOTR movies was the stuff that Jackson invented or changed. Like Arwen at the ford (cringeworthy in the extreme), Elves at Helm's Deep (didn't even make sense), The Wargs being like giant hyenas instead of super cool wolves, Denethor running round while on fire, comedy Gimli etc. The stuff he got right though did look marvellous.

Mindkiller

I actually thought Denethor did run around on fire. That's how I remember it anyway.

I only hope that Legolas' role in these movies is as a brief cameo. He had no shortage of ridiculous stunt scenes in the LOTR movies.

Conall Cernach

Mindkiller wrote: »

I actually thought Denethor did run around on fire. That's how I remember it anyway.

Nope, he died on the funeral pyre and he most certainly did not run from the mausoleum, across the courtyard and jump from the pinnacle of Minas Tirith while Gandalf made sarky comments about him.

Linguo

I agree I don't want there to be loads of added characters for the sake of it, I mean I'm a girl, I love to see kick ass girls in films but if Tolkien didn't include the character in the book I have no interest in them!

Evangeline is cool though, hope it works out ok!

Barry Humphries seemed to be inspired casting though, hope it works:D

PunkFreud

I'm getting worried the cast is getting overly large. Every week there seems to be another post by Jackson about a new actor signing on. Hopefully he'll be able to pull it off.

Personally, I've no problem with him changing the book, and altering things. While I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Hobbit, I don't care what he does. In my eyes a film does not need to be faithful to the original material: it's a piece of art in itself.

Come on now. Tom Bombadil would have been bloody awful in TFotR, the addition of Prince Imrahil in RotK would have been a very rushed character (though I recall Jackson saying he would have wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger for the role, thay would have been awesome), and not having Faramir want the ring would have been scandolous. How could that all powerful object suddenly have no power over one individual? That's why the hobbits had to go to Osgiliath.

Tipsy McSwagger

The character of Faramir was destroyed by Jackson, Walsh and Boyens. Even the guy playing him went up to Jackson and said this is not how he was in the books. Faramir was a noble man in the books who had no intention of using the ring and helped the hobbits in their quest. Frodo and Sam never went to Osgiliath in the books but they had to in the movie with the evil Faramir.

Mellor

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Am I the only one thinking this cast is getting a bit top-heavy at this point?

I don't think so, there really is a huge amount of characters in the book. The dwarves alone were hard to keep track of :pac:

Conall Cernach wrote: »

Arrgh! This means that Jackson is inventing characters to insert into the story. There is not one female elf mentioned in the book.

I don't think so, there were obviously femals elves in the wood. They've jsut given one a name for casting so that she is more than an extra. it's prob a small bit of dialogue, and inclusion in smaller scenes and beside the other main elves

Conall Cernach

Mellor wrote: »

I don't think so, there were obviously femals elves in the wood. They've jsut given one a name for casting so that she is more than an extra. it's prob a small bit of dialogue, and inclusion in smaller scenes and beside the other main elves

I have no problem with that but the fact that she is a pretty famous actress probably means that any role will be expanded as they'll have to justify her salary. With the previous LOTR movies I felt that when Jackson expanded or invented stuff he invariably got it wrong. Arwen at the ford and Arwen dying because mumble mumble mumble are examples of this. Will we see Evangeline the Elf help Bilbo escape or will she kill Smaug? This type of thing would be dramatic deviations from the book.

Sad Professor

I suspect she has a fairly significant role. There's a lack of good female characters in The Hobbit which I'd imagine they are going to rectify. Deviations from the book don't bother me. In fact, I'm expecting a lot more than there was in LOTR. As long the film is good I don't really care.

maquiladora

First pictures :







http://www.slashfilm.com/photos-martin-freeman-bilbo-baggins-the-hobbit/ew-hobbit-jackson/

Mickeroo

Conall Cernach wrote: »

I have no problem with that but the fact that she is a pretty famous actress probably means that any role will be expanded as they'll have to justify her salary. With the previous LOTR movies I felt that when Jackson expanded or invented stuff he invariably got it wrong. Arwen at the ford and Arwen dying because mumble mumble mumble are examples of this. Will we see Evangeline the Elf help Bilbo escape or will she kill Smaug? This type of thing would be dramatic deviations from the book.

The Arwen dying stuff was taken from the appendices of the LOTR book afaik? I could be getting mixed up though.

Tipsy McSwagger

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

The character of Faramir was destroyed by Jackson, Walsh and Boyens. Even the guy playing him went up to Jackson and said this is not how he was in the books. Faramir was a noble man in the books who had no intention of using the ring and helped the hobbits in their quest. Frodo and Sam never went to Osgiliath in the books but they had to in the movie with the evil Faramir.

Jackson made an adaption of the books and by not being slavishly loyal to everything the Tolkien wrote he created a great film. As much as I love the books, any great adaptation should strive to do something unique with the source material

Mickeroo

Deleted User wrote: »

Jackson made an adaption of the books and by not being slavishly loyal to everything the Tolkien wrote he created a great film. As much as I love the books, any great adaptation should strive to do something unique with the source material

True that, besides I thought Faramir was portrayed fairly accurately in the film, I don't recall him being evil in any way, am I missing something?

Sad Professor

Mickeroo wrote: »

True that, besides I thought Faramir was portrayed fairly accurately in the film, I don't recall him being evil in any way, am I missing something?

He didn't come across too well in the theatrical cut of TTT. He was tempted by the ring which many fans of the book weren't happy about. I didn't have a problem with it either. Jackson tried to create an arc for all of the characters, something which many of them didn't have in the book.

Linguo

Those pics are fab, getting extra excited bout movies!!:D

Conall Cernach

Mickeroo wrote: »

The Arwen dying stuff was taken from the appendices of the LOTR book afaik? I could be getting mixed up though.

By "Arwen dying" I was referring to the part in ROTK when Elrond brings Anduril to Aragorn and tells him she's dying for some obscure reason and Aragorn must become king to prevent it for some other non explained reason. If Jackson invents anything on a par with that for the Hobbit then I'll be disappointed.

UrsCanB

Conall Cernach wrote: »

I have no problem with that but the fact that she is a pretty famous actress probably means that any role will be expanded as they'll have to justify her salary. With the previous LOTR movies I felt that when Jackson expanded or invented stuff he invariably got it wrong. Arwen at the ford and Arwen dying because mumble mumble mumble are examples of this. Will we see Evangeline the Elf help Bilbo escape or will she kill Smaug? This type of thing would be dramatic deviations from the book.

At the risk of being a Tolkien nerd I hope they don't deviate much

Mickeroo

Sad Professor wrote: »

He didn't come across too well in the theatrical cut of TTT. He was tempted by the ring which many fans of the book weren't happy about. I didn't have a problem with it either. Jackson tried to create an arc for all of the characters, something which many of them didn't have in the book.

Ah right I get ya, I thought the whole point of that was that he was tempted but didn't succumb which showed what a noble strong guy he was, along the lines of Aragorn in his resilience.

Conall Cernach wrote: »

By "Arwen dying" I was referring to the part in ROTK when Elrond brings Anduril to Aragorn and tells him she's dying for some obscure reason and Aragorn must become king to prevent it for some other non explained reason. If Jackson invents anything on a par with that for the Hobbit then I'll be disappointed.

Ah right I get ya.

Sad Professor

First look at the dwarves:



Look great! Not at all like Gimli which is what I expected.

humanji

Christ, the one on the left looks like my ex-girlfriend. Shorter beard, though.

Mellor

Sad Professor wrote: »

Look great! Not at all like Gimli which is what I expected.

Just curious, but why did you expect them to not look like Gimli?
I was expecting some to be older, some to be younger. Generally look more regal than Gimli's warrior look. But i still expected them to look similar to him.

Sad Professor

I meant I expected them to look like Gimli.

Conall Cernach

Any ideas which Dwarf is which. I reckon the one on the right could be Balin.