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Casting for The Hobbit begins this week, and Peter Jackson has told MTV that there are two 'Lord of the Rings' stars who will likely be returning to the franchise, in addition to the previously-announced Ian McKellen.
"Gandalf, being a 2,000-year-old wizard, is still around and plays a major role in 'The Hobbit,' and we're having Ian McKellen reprise," explained the filmmaker, who is executive-producing the flick and writing the screenplay. "There's a couple of other characters: Elrond, who was played by Hugo Weaving [in the original films], and there's a possibility of Galadriel, who was played by Cate Blanchett."
The plot thickens. The presence of Weaving and Blanchett would definitely add a nice sense of continuity to the new films, to say nothing of the additional thespian gravitas they'd bring to The Hobbit.
Lensing of the two movies is slated to begin in the spring, with Guillermo del Toro at the helm. The first film is looking towards a December 2011 release, with the second intended for release a year later in December 2012.
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"If you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
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