BilboBaggins Tagged Articles at Cinematical

While speaking to fans during Comic Con, Peter Jackson revealed that The Hobbit is much farther away than fans have been led to believe: "Everyone assumes we're casting but we're not," he said. Recently rumors suggested that Jackson (who's producing this time around while Guillermo del Toro directs) would use this time at Con to announce who would play Bilbo Baggins in the much-anticipated double-feature prequel, though not only did he not reveal any names -- he claimed they're not even close to choosing one.

Jackson said that they're three or four weeks away from handing in the first draft of the script, and that the film isn't even really greenlit yet -- they still need to finish writing, get approval on the script, and have the budget approved before we will see any actual progress in the way of casting. While there is no doubt that the film will get made, it's still in that squishy working stage, and we shouldn't be scanning the trades for a Bilbo Baggins casting announcement for a few more months.

Hopefully, though, things will remain on target so that we'll all be able to watch the first Hobbit film when it hits theaters in December of 2011. We'll have more from Peter Jackson in a little while as Cinematical was one of a handful of sites who got to sit down for an intimate chat with the filmmaker. Stay tuned ...

Erik Davis contributed to this post

Now that The Hobbit looks like it will actually happen, it's time to once again talk about the film's casting. And it appears Sir Ian McKellan will most definitely return as Gandalf. He is quoted in The Guardian as saying that he would be "very pleased" to return to the iconic role, which he played in the three Lord of the Rings movies. He also stated that he will do it regardless of whether or not Peter Jackson is brought back to direct the "prequel". In fact, McKellan claims he has received Jackson's blessing to do the film without him. And so the actor said that if he's physically capable of playing the character, he will certainly do so. Of course, he hasn't officially been asked to return, let alone cast, in The Hobbit. But surely he will be offered the part, right?

Obviously, he must be cast. Aside from the fact that he's iconically associated with the character, McKellan was even recognized with an Oscar nomination for playing Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring. But the main reason for McKellan to return -- and I'm sure he recognizes this, as does Jackson -- is for the fans. Some fans will be extremely disappointed if Jackson doesn't direct The Hobbit, but nearly all of the fans should boycott the film if the production goes with a new cast. It will be hard enough accepting someone other than Ian Holm playing Bilbo Baggins, which could very well happen since Baggins is much younger in the earlier story of The Hobbit than in the LOTR trilogy. But if Jackson didn't come back to direct, the film could end up in the hands of Sam Raimi, who we can assume would do the project justice by casting McKellan. Yet despite the new healthiness of The Hobbit, we still can't be sure it will happen very soon. So, if for some terrible reason McKellan isn't "functioning," as he says, who could possibly be considered to replace him? Michael Gambon, perhaps?