That’s true. A beard, a little grey at the temples and he might do. For some reason, ever since the LOTR movies started and I started thinking about what a live-action Hobbit might be like, I’ve always pictured Mel Gibson in the Bard role.
[Sorry for the slight hijack in casting suggestions, but had to respond.]
Peter Jackson has said he would love to do The Hobbit…it is a question of getting the rights. I believe MGM owns the rights, and now Sony is buying MGM…so, now it is in Sony’s court.
Fine Line would give eye-teeth to do it, but they won’t give up the huge percentage that Sony will probably want. So, will Sony go off and try to do it on their own, getting Mr. Jackson to jump ship and work for them or getting a different director? The biggest problem is time…the longer they wait, the older the original cast of LOTR gets and that could be a problem with some of the casting suggestions being mentioned here.
If I am not mistaken, New Line owns the rights to make a movie of the book but MGM/Sony owns the rights to distribute it. If Sony is smart, they will sell the rights, as their value will only go down as the years go by and the cache of the LOTR movies gets older.