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Yep, Evangiline Lilly will be playing yet another elf bird presumably shoe horned into the story to up the number of girls, whilst Barry Humphries is on motion capture duty for the Goblin King. Not so bemused by the casting as such, but the non-CGI goblins in LoTR were actually very convincing, so CG goblins in the Hobbit would be a shame. When he was set to direct, Guillermo Del Toro specifically said he wanted to steer away from computer imagery and do more with costumes and make up.
Oh and also in the motion capture suit is Benedict Cumberbatch (he of Sherlock fame) to play Smaug. Not sure if he is doing the voice though.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2011/06/20 07:16:50
Ahtman wrote:Peter Jackson made such horrible decisions the first time around I can understand your trepidation.
That's an intriguing statement. By and large, I think he got most of it right. Still, I like a challenge, so I tried to think of his 5 worst decisions...
1. Casting Stuart Townsend as Aragorn - A pure "WTF were you thinking" moment that was thankfully rectified at the last moment.
2. Casting Elijah Wood as Frodo - A misfire that become more apparent as the trilogy went on as Wood didn't really handle Frodo's descent into darkness very well
3. The Warg Attack in Two Towers - Even Jackson admitted this was a mistake. It was a nice idea, but if you can't execute something properly, drop it.
4. Ethereal Undead - Another Jackson admission that the once the Army of the Dead agreed to fight it was game over for the forces of Mordor. I think they would have worked better as walking corpses rather than ghosts, then at least the orcs would have stood a fighting chance.
5. Return of the King's multiple endings - More Tolkien's error than Jackson's, but if you can drop Tom Bombadil and put Shelob in the right place, then you can take a pair of scissors to the last few chapters.
@ Kanulwen - It did seem odd, but here's what I read...
After reporting today that Luke Evans will play Bard in the Peter Jackson-directed The Hobbit and wondering who’ll voice the dragon Smaug, Deadline can now tell you that it will be Benedict Cumberbatch. He’ll portray Smaug via motion capture. He is already on the picture, providing the voice of the character Necromancer.
So technically this means that Cumberbatch is the voice of sauron..
interesting choice, I'd have thought that a necromancer would be someone old and wizened, with a voice like a creaky door, rather than cumberbatch's voice made of awesome.
Goliath wrote:So technically this means that Cumberbatch is the voice of sauron..
interesting choice, I'd have thought that a necromancer would be someone old and wizened, with a voice like a creaky door, rather than cumberbatch's voice made of awesome.
I'm not so sure the quote in my post is accurate now. He might being doing both the Necromancer and Smaug, or one or the other.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/06/20 21:17:00
Kanluwen wrote:Why are you mentioning a "motion capture suit" with Smaug?
Smaug's a dragon. He's providing a voice, nothing more.
They'll use motion capture for the facial expressions, most likely. The way the lips and eyes move, stuff like that.
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Barry Humphries is a very talented guy. He was brilliant as Bruce the shark in finding nemo and I think you just have to look at his awful (in a great way) alter ego, Doctor Sir Les Patterson, to see how he'd make a phenomenal goblin king.
KingCracker wrote:Motion capture of his face maybe? I dont see how else you can motion capture a human to be a dragon
Lips move and curl to roll to make or match certain words being spoken. Eyes move in time with that. I don't know for certain, but it wouldn't surprise me.
Think of that dragon movie with Sean Connery that sucked, and how his voice was awesome but the dragon didn't quite match it. I'd be surprised if they didn't use motion capture to link the two more closely these days.
I'm just guessing though, I could be completely wrong.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/06/21 04:33:54
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Kanluwen wrote:Why are you mentioning a "motion capture suit" with Smaug?
Smaug's a dragon. He's providing a voice, nothing more.
They'll use motion capture for the facial expressions, most likely. The way the lips and eyes move, stuff like that.
This is what I was also thinking.
Afterall, you saw how they used it for Smeagol in LotR, why not use it to fully capture the complexity of expression?
MikZor wrote:
We can't help that american D&D is pretty much daily life for us (Aussies)
Walking to shops, "i'll take a short cut through this bush", random encounter! Lizard with no legs.....
I kid Since i avoid bushlands that is But we're not that bad... are we?
I have to say that I can't see the problem with Barry Humphries as the Goblin King; Andy Serkis did ok as Gollum and he looks and sounds like a bit of a twit in real life.
Just because the guy's best known for Dame Edna doesn't mean the goblin King will be in the pink wig and glasses.
Some of the casting choices will inevitably raise an eyebrow, but the same was true when you saw some of the choices for LOTR.
I personally had issues with the casting of Frodo, Sam, Pippin, Merry, Aragorn, Elrond, Arwen, Celeborn and Theoden, but most of them turned out to be passable in the roles in the end.
Have a little faith in the casting of the parts.
Apart from Sylvester McCoy as Rhadagast,,,that's just pants.
Apart from Sylvester McCoy as Rhadagast,,,that's just pants.
The greatest Doctor we've had.
you're drifting into my crosshairs mate...
Wouldn't trust the man to take my temperature...Matt Smith all the way!
Whilst I've liked Smith well enough, McCoy was the loki, merlin, dark eccentric doctor who had the greatest battle against truly dreadful budgets and still made the series watchable by his own presence! He's a great character actor and I'm hoping he'll bring that edge of a sinister joker to the role.
Ahtman wrote:Peter Jackson made such horrible decisions the first time around I can understand your trepidation.
I'm guessing this is sarcasm though, right?
And I didn't even have to use the sarcasm tags.
The only reason I even momentarily questioned it, was because I know there are actually a few people on Dakka who feel that the Lord of the Rings movies are poor films and horrible bastardizations of Tolkien's work.
Ahtman wrote:Peter Jackson made such horrible decisions the first time around I can understand your trepidation.
I'm guessing this is sarcasm though, right?
And I didn't even have to use the sarcasm tags.
The only reason I even momentarily questioned it, was because I know there are actually a few people on Dakka who feel that the Lord of the Rings movies are poor films and horrible bastardizations of Tolkien's work.
Flesh Eaters 4,500 points
