The director of the forthcoming The Hobbit films, Guillermo del Toro, has recently announced the return of Hugo Weaving and possibly confirmed the return of Ian McKellan and Andy Serkis to the Tolkien landscape during an interview with the BBC’s Simon Mayo. Weaving returns to reprise his role as Elrond, perhaps rejoining Mckellan (Gandalf) and Serkis (Gollum) in the film adaptations from the book chronicling the adventures of Bilbo.
I like the horror aspect noted (something that a Jackson/del Toro team-up seems a dream team for):
“The spiders of Mirkwood are a pretty harrowing experience and facing the great goblin in the caves is quite a thrilling moment. The Battle of the Five Armies, the first encounter with Gollum – there are scary moments in the book.
“But they are already there. We are not inventing or trying to do horror for horror’s sake we are trying to imbue those moments of intensity in the book into the movie.”
I’m also very excited about the hinted new material that are attempts to convey Gandalf’s actions just prior to the War of the Ring:
people that know the lore know that Gandalf was delayed with a crisis… with a character that is very shady called the Necromancer that proves to be Sauron.
As anybody that’s been around our site long enough knows I’m a huge Tolkien fan, and a History of Middle Earth nut, but I’m also a fan of the movies, and when I say I “like the movies from what they are” it’s not at all intended to be pandering. I think the films are excellent even with changes that can absolutely be described as liberal. The parts that people hated – Arwen’s more central role, the Elves appearing at The Battle of the Hornburg to fight with Man, and Elrond’s appearance at Dunharrow to give Narsil to Aragorn – I thought all added great, cinematic and dramatic effect. When Haldir led the Elves into Helm’s Deep it sent chills through me.
I’m also interested in how the films will portray Sauron in terms of if they will give him a physical form. I know one of the most annoying aspects for readers when discussing the mythos with those who’ve only seen the films is the subject of Sauron’s actual form, and ability to take form.
You can listen to the interview at BBC (note: you have to have Real Player, and started around 1 3/4 hours in). As we noted before, the first of the two films is scheduled to be released in December of 2011 followed by the second in December of 2012.
