Ian McKellen Talks More About HOBBIT

Thank God for Sir Ian McKellen, he seems to be LOTR fan’s only connection to what’s going on with THE HOBBIT Movie. While Producer Peter Jackson and director Guillermo Del Toro and the writing team are working hard to bring Tolkien’s book to the big screen, via Empire, Gandalf The White gave the world some updates…

“The scripts for the two films will be delivered very soon,” he revealed. “Then they’ll be budgeted, and then they’ll be cast. And they’ll be going when they’ve always said they would be, which is next spring – March or April. Guillermo even told me at one point, ‘We’re going to film for 383 days.’ He’s got that artistic autism! Jackson’s the same; they’re very, very, very alike. They also very different, but they’ve so much in common. They both can’t stand Hollywood and have wonderful imaginations, and they’re both obsessed with gore and fantasy. Both of them laugh a great deal. Guillermo’s one of the most brilliant men I’ve ever met. His English vocabulary is way superior to mine!”

“Unforunately, there won’t be many of the actors going back,” he said, “unless they’re going to put masks on and be disguised as dwarves! Andy Serkis is, at the moment, I think, the only other actor who’s doing this film.”

Via TheOneRing.net, McKellen was a guest of UK’s Channel 4 Paul O’Grady Show recently and confirmed these bulletpoints..

• He has received ‘both’ scripts.

• Original LOTR cast members will be returning.

• He has signed the declaration that he will not talk to friends, family or even his agent about the script

• He does not know who is cast as Bilbo, but believes he will be an English actor.

Some of the names that have been rumored to play Bilbo Baggins are James McAvoy, Martin Freeman and David Tennant. Freeman is the only Englishman out of the three. Daniel Radcliffe was part of the rumors too but he shot ‘em down. We’ll just have to wait and see.

THE HOBBIT part I opens 2011 and part II opens 2012