The Hall of Fire :: View topic

It would be easy enough to fatten him up, although they didn't make that a priority for the Hobbits in the LOTR films at all. Elijah's just as skinny as Tennant. More important I think is that his age is right; from what I have seen he could pull off the middle-aged bachelor set in his ways that is so crucial to the story. Tennant is about 40, I think, give or take a year or so, which I think is definitely in the pocket for playing a 50-year-old Hobbit. I would be cautiously pleased with the choice if it turned out to be true.

TotalFilm is speculating about the possibility, just based on the first Simon Pegg tweet saying that Tennant had dropped out of Burke and Hare.

Is David Tennant Bilbo Baggins?

Interesting that Serkis -presumable also in HOBBIT - would replace Tennant in the body snatcher film to allow Tennant to be in the HOBBIT film. I guess that pretty much tells us that the scenes involving Gollum (played by Serkis) are not going to be expanded beyond the canon and the time needed before the HOBBIT cameras by Serkis will be rather limited. If that proves to be true, that is good news.

Elen - if Tennant is so inclined he could always go the way of Robert DeNiro when he filmed the last few minutes of RAGING BULL and put on the necessary pounds. Although when you look at the frame of Tennant and that of DeNiro, that might be a bit harder than it sounds. I would think a bit of good old fashioned padding and perhaps some help from the make-up crew might do the job.

Just putting him in all that thick wooly hobbity clothing with a thick wooly hobbity waistcoat would add 10 or 20 pounds, I think.

From one of the posts on TORn:

But it is enough of a tease to keep the tongues wagging. Wink

Deleting the tweet probably only energized the rumors.

Elen, there was supposedly a second tweet that was deleted that said that Tennant was going to Middle-earth. However, only the one person reported seeing that second tweet, and it is possible (even likely) that it was really the first tweet that the person was misreporting.

Time will tell.

Makinng a skinny actor appear more fat should not be too hard. Easier than the other way round. Wink

Edit: never mind, I missed a page of posts. Embarassed

The bare fact that Tennant dropped out of one project doesn't even imply that he's signed on to another. But for the Serkis connection there would be no intimations of Hobbit at all.

Although Tennant would look kind of interesting all red with the stumps of horns on his forehead....

So the Tobey Maguire thing is a no go?

Oh yeah. The Tobey Maguire thing has been definitively debunked personally by both del Toro and Jackson. No truth to it whatsoever.

Regarding Tennant, he dropped out of a project in which he had a major, title role. Either he had overwhelming personal reasons to do so, or he had a still better role on offer. That doesn't have to be Bilbo; somebody in the comments of the linked thread said he had a series in development with NBC, a network that suddenly has five more hours of prime time to fill. I don't know if the TV thing is true, but if it is, it might be what made him drop out of Burke and Hare.

Still, he strikes me as the kind of interesting, intelligent actor that seems to appeal to both GdT and PJ.

Yeah, the TV thing is true, but has been known for months. Here's a link from back in early November:

David Tennent Lands American TV Pilot

I'd be delighted to see Tennant in anything. It certainly looks as though he dropped out to be available for the NBC show, though.

Irish singer Ronan Keating is hoping to launch an acting career - he's planning a move to Hollywood after auditioning for a part in The Hobbit...

Hugo Weaving talks about his return as Elrond in 'The Hobbit' on Hitfix.com

TORN has posted an article from The Telegraph in which it states that Matthew Goode has auditioned for the role of Bilbo.

Bafta Awards 2010: Matthew Goode Interview

Ain't it Cool News is reporting that Australian actor Jack Thompson state this past weekend that he was up for the role of Thorin. I must say he does look the part. I've never heard of him, but apparently he is reputedly a very good actor. Can any of our friends from down under confirm that?

Is Australian actor Jack Thompson a lock for Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit? [edit: usual AICN language warning]

I wish I could have more confidence than an AICN story provides, because I think he'd be excellent. He seems physically perfect for the role and is well respected as an actor.

Here's his IMDB page, which includes his filmography:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0860233/