New Line Cinema has finally confirmed what might be one of the worst-kept secrets in the film industry: the titles of the upcoming two-part Hobbit films. Both titles were released almost three months ago, but never confirmed until now, along with their official release dates.
The first film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set for a December 14, 2012 release, while the second, The Hobbit: There and Back Again is set for a December 13, 2013 release. This the first official confirmation of these long-rumored titles, and both titles are sourced from the text, which will make fans happy — There and Back Again is actually J.R.R. Tolkien’s subtitle to The Hobbit novel and in The Return of the King “My Unexpected Journey” is one of the titles Bilbo Baggins rejects as the title of his memoirs.
But the even bigger news in the press release is that Ian Holm, who played a spot-on Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, will return as “elder Bilbo” in The Hobbit films. It’s likely that Holm will appear in the rumored “prologue” scenes featuring Bilbo telling Frodo (Elijah Wood) about his long-ago adventures that make up the story of The Hobbit.
In addition, recently director Peter Jackson joked about the participation of the “returning” actors on his Facebook page, including the following goofy picture of Jackson, Hugo Weaving (Elrond), Ian McKellan (Gandalf), and someone who is supposedly Cate Blanchett (Gladriel), although her face is covered:
In addition to Holm, McKellen, Weaving, Blanchett, and Wood, many actors from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy are returning to reprise their roles in The Hobbit films, including Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, and Andy Serkis.
Actors new to Middle-Earth include Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, along with Richard Armitage, Aidan Turner, James Nesbitt, Graham McTavish, Jed Brophy, Ken Scott, Stephen Hunter, John Callen, Adam Brown, William Kircher, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton and Dean O’Gorman, who will all be playing Bilbo’s thirteen dwarf companions.
Recent Comments