Look, I promised you Gandalf on a unicycle playing the bagpipes, and here it is, Gandalf, playing the bagpipes and riding a unicycle. Don’t ever change, Portland, don’t ever change.
Sir Ian McKellen is officially back as Gandalf for the two Hobbit movies, planned for 2010 and 2011.
According to studio New Line, the first film will be an adaptation of The Hobbit and the second will be an original story focusing on the 60 years between the book and the beginning of the Rings trilogy.
"As to how it’s going to work over two films and what going to happen on screen, well Guillermo has not got down to working out the major details yet – I can tell you it’s going to be amazing though," Sir Ian said [Ugh, sycophantic actors... -Ed.]
I hate wizard characters because there’s always some battle scene where the good guys are getting their ass kicked for like 10 minutes and just when it looks like they’re done for, the wizard guy decides to concentrate real hard and annihilates everyone with mind bullets, and then everyone cheers. Thanks, ass, maybe you should’ve tried that to begin with.
Interesting tidbit: Sean Connery turned down the project of Gandalf in the first Lord of the Rings – he said in an interview that he “didn’t understand it.” That’s too bad, because I think a wizard who slaps chicks would’ve been pretty gangsta. -[Thanks to Bryce for the tip]
