Of Thorin Oakenshield and The Hobbit - a perspective from across the Tasman

RA & Thorin

  

                                                  Image by John Howe posted on Tolkien Gateway

 I can see what Sir Peter Jackson might be looking for ...

Look at the intensity of the smoulder.

 (This post was written in October 2010)

Right Movie, wrong role!

On 30th May 2008, I wrote a post on our default blog that goes as follows:

 

"Last Sunday, I registered for an online chat (The Unexpected Party) hosted by Weta. It featured Peter Jackson (LOTR) and Guillermo del Toro discussing their latest project - The Hobbit Movie (in fact it appears that there will be two movies). The transcript for the session can be found on the Weta website. Unfortunately PJ and GDT were very vague about casting for the films mainly because they had not yet written the scripts. The prediction is that they will start filming in 2010, so there is plenty of time for consideration.

I edited the next part as it was all about Bard the Bowman. Lord of Esgaroth and Last King of Dale which I thought would be a great part for RA.... small but heroic.... I'll add in the photo and quote though (below)

 

" And they praised the courage of Bard and his last mighty shot. 'If only he had not been killed' they all said, 'we would make him a king. Bard the Dragon-shooter of the line of Girion! Alas that he is lost!'

And in the very midst of their talk a tall figure stepped from the shadows. He was drenched with water, his black hair hung wet over his face and shoulders, and a fierce light was in his eyes.

'Bard is not lost!' he cried.......'I am Bard of the line of Girion. I am the slayer of the dragon!' "

THE HOBBIT

J.R.R.TOLKIEN

I am now shooting a thousand of the broadest hints using my hypothetical bow to the producer and director of the movies as well as Richard Armitage's agents, not to mention RA himself.....PLEASE CONSIDER!

Feel free to leave a comment - contact details remain private, names can be fictitious if you wish.

For those people who don't know, this photo is of Richard Armitage playing the role of the infamous Guy of Gisborne in the BBC production of Robin Hood but he has acted in many quality BBC productions including North and South ( a few mentions of which occur in this blog), and of course he married the Vicar of Dibley (on screen).

OK ... it is now present day - 22nd October 2010 - and finally Peter Jackson (without Guillermo del Toro who moved on to other projects) has announced his casting for The Hobbit. RA is not Bard BUT he has achieved a huge coup in being cast as Thorin Oakenshield. Over at TheOneRing.net we had speculated about the role of Bard and also Thrandull, but we never considered Thorin. I have to say that I am so delighted for RA - a Tolkien fan - to be cast in such an important role. (Not quite sure how they will disguise his height, but they managed to do so with John Rhys Davies in LOTR).

That reminds me - RA in an old interview stated that Cate Blanchett was a favourite actress of his. So, in LOTR, Gimli meets, and is bewitched, by Galadriel ... does this mean that Thorin will meet her also? The other piece of trivia is that RA is working on Captain America, The First Avenger, with Hugo Weaving who is rumoured to be reprising his role as Elrond in The Hobbit. I wonder if he and RA are comparing notes?

Thirdly, I have my fingers and toes crossed that The Hobbit will be filmed in New Zealand despite the industrial strife. Surely Peter Jackson won't take it off to another country??? If indeed it is in our hemisphere, my wishful thinking would extend to the following scenario...... 

By way of introduction - an unexpected casting.

I am starting this blog in order to keep all my posts about Tolkien's The Hobbit and Thorin Oakenshield in particular, together. If you have stumbled across this blog by accident, I have been following actor Richard Armitage's career for over three years. Two years ago I was participating on a thread on his IMDb board speculating future roles for him. I posted that I thought he would be terrific as Bard the Bowman in The Hobbit. From that point, I was contacted by three fellow fans  of Richard Armitage's who also believed he would be good in the role - I was encouraged by one of them (Destrier) to join TheOneRing.net fansite. At that stage, the then director, Guillermo del Toro, was an occasional visitor and poster. Destrier along with one or two others began to post on TORn's casting speculation thread. By September 2010, I had only small hopes that Richard Armitage would get a role in the movies and while I had not forgotten, I posted irregularly on that board. On October 22nd, 2010, however, I received a text at work from my OH to say Richard had been cast - not as Bard, but as Thorin Oakenshield. 

The following posts are all Hobbit related and have been kept on my other blogs. My "RA Viewer's Perspective" blog is however often full of posts about Richard Armitage's work that are unrelated to The Hobbit. I discovered that my fellow fans and blogger buddies really were not interested in my posts about Thorin, so I have decided to keep them together on this new blog.