posted
Interesting tidbit in a Con report over at TrekMovie.com - Patrick Stewart claims he was offered the part of Gandalf by Peter Jackson when casting LotR, but turned it down in favour of another part which he didn't get. He wouldn't say which part, oddly. Was it because a) now, in hindsight, such a part would be patently ridiculous for him - Aragorn, or Legolas, or someone else so obviously wrong for a sixtysomething Yorkshireman to play? Or, b) had a comparatively low amount of screen-time - Bilbo, or Gimli? Or, c) Didn't get featured at all - Glorfindel or Tom Bombadil!
posted
I think Glorfindel and Bombadil went out at the pre-miramax scripting stage, so it's not likely to be either of them. I was about to suggest Th�oden or Denethor but then I think he would have been able to play either of those. Perhaps he refers to Elrond? He is after all a little short for an elf. Or Boromir perhaps?
posted
Oh, yeah, chances are it was likely Saruman, Elrond, Theoden, or Denethor. It just seems odd given that, according to the con report, he absolutely would not be drawn on who he wanted to play.
I always saw him as Theoden myself (once it became clear that both Gandalf and Saruman were cast, although my memory is imperfect and I can't remember now in what order McKellen, Lee and Hill were announced in their roles, but probably in the order I just listed them). I can't see him going for Elrond, his part was massively increased but was still largely window-dressing. Which leaves Denethor, whose role was probably slightly reduced.
posted
Stewart not want play Ghan-Buri-Ghan. Make Ghan-Buri-Ghan great sadness. Ghan-Buri-Ghan deserve billing. Now tribe look down on Ghan-Guri-Ghan, spit when pass on trail home. Payment on oscar tux not re-foon-dable. Ghan-Buri-Ghan must work many moons now peel taters.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
...And in vaguely related news, Sean Astin plays a slightly naive traveller with an innocent disposition, while Christopher Lee plays a tall looming supernatural being. No it's not the Hobbit, but have a look here.
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A few months later and a random bit of news... About three weeks back Jackson did a live webchat regarding the two Hobbit films (transcript here), I've just recently got to reading the whole thing and this comment caught my attention.
quote:KenshinIV What are the chances Ron Perlman will be voicing Smog? Guillermo del Toro At this time the voice of Smaug is down to a very few choices in my head and I have a completely specific one, Ron has a good chance but I have other plans for RP... we will see...
Cryptic, but after reading this as well...
quote:WetaHost Considering that you're stretching The Hobbit into 2 movies can we assume that Beorn will be featured and will not be given the Tom Bombadil treatment? Guillermo del Toro I may be in the minority, but I absolutely LOVE Beorn and I intend to feature him in the films. BTW I also like TB quite a bit…
...I couldn't help wondering if Del Toro is thinking of Ron Perlman as Beorn? In terms of physicality alone I think he'd be an excellent choice. Oh and is it possible he's thinking of putting TB in there somewhere too? Perhaps in film 2? Or maybe I'm reading too much into all this. Actually it just occured to me that Perlman might make a good candidate for Thorin, that is assumung they're using the same scaling trick that they used in the original films. In fact this time around it's even more important for all the Dwarves to be played by tall actors & the hobbits by short people, since they have the most interaction this time around.
posted
Rather have a real englishman, preferably scottish, to be thorin. Someone with gravitas, not rhys-davies... I like him but gimli was just a joke.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
And the not so minor point that he won't do it.
I think Perlman has plenty of gravitas. Speaking as an Englishman myself, I don't believe an actor has to speak in received pronunciation to be a credible authority figure. Regardless, good actors are perfectly capable of putting on accents as evidenced by Rhys-Davies himself. He was born in the same city as me and I'll be buggered if that's a Wiltshire accent he uses in interviews. Same goes for the likes Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellen. I'm sure any half decent American actor can alter their accent just as well.
As for other casting possibilities for the Dwarves, I can easily see the likes of Brendan Gleeson, Brian Cox, James Cosmo and other cast members of Braveheart being up for some of the various other dwarf parts. Off the top of my head others who might fit the bill could be the likes of Mike McShane, John Goodman, John Ratzenberger, hell, even Meat Loaf might be good for it.
Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
Speaking of accents, I'm not sure what accent the Elves used in LotR...I mean if that's a real accent or just a "hey this sounds Elfy" accent somebody came up with...but I thought Live Tyler did a pretty good job of sounding elvish, anyway.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I'm probably the only man on earth that finds her creepy and unattractive. Seriously, give it ten years and she;ll be her dad in drag....((shudder))
I could see Tom Jane as Bard.
Speaking of the Hobbitt, I just last week bought the old Bass and Rankin animated Hobbit. Bilbo looks really...froggy. The Dwarves look completely unthreatening and Smaug looks like a giant cat with wings. Still, it holds a dear place in my heart (right next to all that shrapnel).
Alll I can say is, those spiders better fucking talk! I was pretty disapointed in Shelob's apparant lack speaking ability. And yes, I want singing goblins: singing pyromaniac goblins were a big influence on my impressionable young mind.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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