But just before we met, he’d auditioned for the role of Bilbo Baggins in Guillermo del Toro’s two-part film of The Hobbit. As he is the first to admit, he’s not an obvious choice – ‘Look at the size of me for Christ’s sake!’ If he got the part, he would, he says, find it almost impossible to refuse – despite the fact that it would involve him spending several months in New Zealand.

We are still waiting for official confirmation, but this indicates that at least the work is in progress for The Hobbit

Everyone is over the moon. Tobey is not only one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood, he is also one of the best actors.

Tobey Maguire was recently asked about the rumor and claimed he had not been approached:

I love Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson and I certainly wouldn’t take myself out of the conversation.

Aintitcool.com managed to get a reply to an email they sent Peter Jackson asking if there was anything in this latest rumor:

No truth at all, although we’re all big fans of Toby. We are currently auditioning for Bilbo, and a month or two away from any announcements.

Thanks THM!

I have been promised I’m in it.

This happened 12 hours from eating dinner with The Hobbit director Guillermo Del Toro. He also mentioned that it’s possible that he will reprise his role in X-Men Origins: Magneto, depending on the Wolverine saga development. If another Wolverine movie is created, it’s highly probable that Ian leaves the proyect.

Thanks RC!

This is a news item I’d love to proclaim with all-out certainty, but my tried and trusted source(s) aren’t sure if this is a total lock, or whether it’s just someone they’re seriously interested in. Either way, producers of THE HOBBIT have begun looking at casting for the dwarves (dwarfs?), and one name has emerged as a major contender: Brian Cox. He’s a brilliant choice for the role: physically, he fits with the depiction of the the race in LOTR (well, Gimli), and he’s a born Scotsman. Also, he could yell at Galadriel for adding narration. So there you go. If this comes to fruition, you heard it here first!

I think that he can be a good Thorin Oakenshield. What do you think?

Thanks EW!

“I’m having supper with [director] Guillermo del Toro this evening, so you’re asking me twelve hours too early.”.

Also he already confirm that he will be in The Hobbit.

Q:Universal announced a pretty busy slate for you after “The Hobbit.” Will we see a Hellboy 3?
A:If its up to me- yes!! But it is a corporate decision and regimes change very rapidly at these studios.

Q:There any professionals who worked with you on Hellboy II that will be joining you on the Hobbit?
A:Hopefully Mignola, Barlowe, Spectral Motion, Guillermo Navarro and others…

Q:Will you be using Danny Elfman as a composer again on future projects?
A:Absolutely, but not until after the HOBBIT films.

Q:Do you think filming Hellboy II helped prepare you for filming the Hobbit?
A:Technically, yes- but that’s not the challenge in THE HOBBIT. The challenge is to create and expand a massive universe and be as immersive as the Trilogy was. To approach Tolkien’s book with the right mixture of reverence, enthusiasm and invention.

Q:WILL THERE BE ANY COOL CREATURES IN HOBBIT LIKE HELLBOY2?
A:many many more and we will be pushing the goblin kindgom. we will be pushing smaug, the spiders of mirkwood. we will be pushing them to the edge of technology where we will fuse animatronics and cgi into a seamless new art form in creating creatures, i think.

Q:Do you plan to use any particular effects or techniques in the Hobbit that were used in Hellboy II?
A:Well, yes, but used in a different way. You will see some mind-boggling mixture of CGI / Puppetry like never before. The demarcation of where one technique ends and the other begins will NOT be as clean as in HBII or BLADE II or PAN’S LABYRINTH. I am going to push further than ever on both fronts.

Q:WHEN DOES FILMING FOR THE HOBBIT BEGIN?
A:it will begin in 2010 and we will shoot for about 370 days or so…

Q:At what age did you first read The Hobbit?
A:I believe it was between 10 years old and 11 years old. My first copy of it is dated as printed in 1973 and I know I bought it shortly after being published by a great publishing house called MINOTAURO which was (in my childhood years) like the CRITERION COLLECTION of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

Q:How long did it take to create the script for this movie?
A:For the record- neither Peter Jackson nor I had the faintest contact about the HOBBIT movies prior to the absolute completion of HELLBOY II. I got Peter’s first call in December 2007- way after we wrapped the film. So, the visuals in the HOBBIT movie are not anticipated in the HBII movie.

Q:Will you be working with Guillermo Navarro on The Hobbit?
A:I hope so!!

Q:Does Mike Mignola have any involvement with you on The Hobbit?
A:I hope and pray he joins us at the design stage for a week or two.

Q:Who are your top choices to play Bilbo Baggins in the upcoming Hobbit Movies?
A:Hopefully, very soon we can reveal that-

“The secondary film would bridge the gap between ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ chronologically,” Wood said, “so conceivably, it could be possible.”

Since the films are still being written, “it’s a ways away” before he would know, Wood said, but the trick is to have Frodo’s appearance not seem like an anachronism, since he wasn’t a part of “The Hobbit” adventure.

“That’s the thing,” Wood said. “I would imagine that if he does exist, it’ll make some sort of sense. Otherwise, I don’t think they would do it. I certainly wouldn’t want to do it. I don’t want to have a whole character piece that doesn’t really exist that they’re cobbling together.”

But he has faith in the filmmakers “in whatever they’re going to do in terms of bringing in any familiar characters back, just knowing their sense of upholding integrity.”

To MTV, it seems like the only logical thing would be to introduce Frodo at the very end. Once Bilbo has returned from his adventure, with all his riches, he becomes the most able relative in Frodo’s family to adopt him after his parents Drogo and Primula die in a boating accident on the Brandywine River. Wood agreed.

“Yeah, potentially,” he said. “There’s a lot we know historically about the characters where that would make sense. And personally, if I was involved, it would be to come on for a tiny little piece and have that be that.”

MTV: Do you have the picture yet of the Smaug you want to create?

Del Toro: I discussed the Smaug appearance with great detail with [Tolkien illustrators] John Howe and Alan Lee, and there’s some illustrations that John did out of that meeting in London that approximate Smaug. I cannot say much more. He is becoming clearer and clearer.

Thanks MTV!

In an interview with Empire magazine, Christopher Lee said he was ready to return to the scenarios if he gets a call from the producers of the Hobbit.

“Somewhere, somehow, and it was never actually explained, Saruman turns and it’s probably the Palantír (the wizard’s crystal ball thingy) that makes Saruman realise that if Sauron can do this, why can’t I do it and Saruman wants to become The Lord Of The Rings himself. I’d be interested in seeing how that transition from good to evil occurred and, yes, of course I would return to the role if I was asked.”

Although Saruman doesn’t feature at the Hobbit, he can play lots of scene at The Hobbit 2 just as explained.