More "Hobbit" News!
Some more Hobbit news has made its way from New Zealand; some good and some, well, not so good.
First, Peter Jackson confirmed on his Facebook page over the weekend that Ian Holm will reprise his role as the older version of Bilbo Baggins. There was much speculation regarding this, so it will please fans to finally get a confirmation.
Jackson had posted a video blog on his Facebook in which some people assumed they had heard the voice of Holm when, in fact, the voice was Martin Freeman, who sounds so similar to Holm’s Bilbo that Jackson wasn’t even sure who it was.
“One comment that came up from the recent video blog was the Bilbo voice at the end—many of you assumed it was Sir Ian Holm. Whilst Ian will be returning as the older Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, that recording was actually Martin Freeman’s voice, taken from a script read through we recorded when the cast first arrived. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure who it was when I first heard it, either.”
Holm will join a growing group of other actors returning from the original cast of The Lord of the Rings, including Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Andy Serkis, and Christopher Lee.
In sad news, The Hobbit curse has struck again. Rob Kazinsky, who was cast as the role of Fili the dwarf, has been forced to leave the film for personal reasons, leaving the role temporarily empty.
“Rob has been terrific to work with and his enthusiasm and infectious sense of humour will be missed by all of us,” Jackson said, again on his Facebook page. “I should say that Rob’s departure will not affect ongoing filming of The Hobbit, nor will it impact work done to date, as we had yet to film much of Fili’s storyline. At the moment we are shooting scenes featuring Bilbo without the Dwarves, which will give us time to find a new Fili.”
Although it is a tough break for the actor, Jackson has dealt with this sort of situation before. Days before shooting began on The Lord of The Rings, the director decided to go a different direction with the character of Aragorn and dropped the actor he originally cast; he picked up Viggo Mortensen instead.
The film has already been pushed back by a number of problems, but is set to be released in two parts: the first in late 2012, followed by part two in 2013.
