Benedict Cumberbatch is voicing Smaug and the Necromancer.
He’s so great as Sherlock Holmes, it is cool he can be in this too.
Brilliant! That’s what I was hoping. He already has a chemistry going with Martin Freeman and I think they’ll interact wonderfully.
This is good news. Obviously I hope they remix Cumberpatch’s voice so that he doesn’t sound the same as both Sauron (the Necromancer) and Smaug.
After Sherlock popped up on Netflix Streaming, I checked out the two other streaming miniseries starring Benedict Cumberbatch. He played two very different guys–neither of whom was remotely like Sherlock. (Producers really like to make him suffer; Sherlock has his quirks but I get the impression he’s fun to play.)
I’m betting he has the acting chops to do both voices in the Hobbit movies. He’s one of those British actors who has had serious stage experience to balance his TV & film gigs.
They did a pretty good job with John Reys-Davies doing both Gimli and Treebeard. It actually originally bothered me that both were played by the same guy, but as I became more familiar with the movies, I forgot to even notice anymore.
And Andy Serkis voiced one or two of those “cockney” orcs, too, in addition to Golllum. I’m interested in what Cumberbatch can do.
PJ confirms / announces some casting:
Evangeline Lilly will be playing a new character—the Woodland Elf, Tauriel
Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage) will be portraying the Goblin King
Luke Evans as Bard and Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug
Brian
I saw this elsewhere and came in to mention it. This makes me very sad. It’s like Liv Tyler as Arwen all over again. So which characters will be eliminated in order in order to give her character some lines and stuff to do?
Our first pictures of Martin Freeman as Bilbo are in, along with a shot of Gandalf.
Does Peter Jackson look like he’s gaining weight again? I see that the movie is only filming 12 days less than Lord of the Rings. I wonder why two movies are taking as long as 3 movies.
Since they’re making 2 movies out of one novel (plus assorted JRRT extras), why do you think they need to delete someone? It’s been many years since I read The Hobbit, but I seem to recall a bunch of elves.
Oh, no, a female! The project will still pretty much be a sausage fest…
Just speculation on my part, but maybe it has something to do with this:
-Peter Jackson, on Ian McKellan reprising his role as Gandalf
Since I expect Jackson to go for low-tech solutions (forced perspective, using little people, etc) whenever possible, rather than CG a giant Gandalf into scenes, I could see this adding significant time to the filming.
Pics of Oin and Gloin (and also Dori, Nori and Ori)
Dori is certainly … different
Brian
Why do Oin, Gloin, and especially Ori look like Kelsey Grammer?
New video:
Brian
Here is a Youtube link to the video for those who prefer it.
So, they have blocked the filming off into 3 sections, it sounds. This is a good idea, as it allows them to film, then start post-production on one section, re-work the scripts and prepare another block, then come back and film.
Crazy, but more manageable than the first set of movies.
Cool that Andy Sirkus is doing second unit directing. PJ has done very well with delegating responsibility. I’ve watched all the commentary for the extended versions of the 3 LOTR movies, and it was astonishing how many scenes were directed by people other than Peter.
I hope everyone makes it back for more shooting happy and healthy. Thanks for posting that video - five helicopters! I had Ride of the Valkyries running through my head (“If Peter says it’s safe to surf this beach, we’re gonna surf this beach!”)
Yeah, they had an insane amount of units filming on that one. Only way to get it filmed. They even gave the producer(Robert Osbourne??) a crew and had him film Boromir’s death, a key scene to say the least.
Barrie Osbourne. Peter’s wife and co-writer Fran Walsh directed some scenes as well.
The dwarves look… too shiny and pristine, somehow. Almost alien. Not at all how I’d envisioned them. The pics of Freeman as Bilbo are nice, though.