[From The Playlist, via The One Ring] What a surprise – Peter Jackson‘s Lord of the Rings two-part 3D prequel The Hobbit will shoehorn in an appearance by Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins in the LOTR trilogy – as if you didn’t know). Spoiler Alert, all you One Ringers, so if you don’t want to know, stop reading now.
The fan site The One Ring provided the confirmation that Wood will be reprising his role as Frodo for at least an opening scene to The Hobbit. In the Lord of the Rings movies, Bilbo Baggins (originally played by Ian Holm, portrayed by Martin Freeman in Jackson’s The Hobbit) wrote his story as There and Back Again in the Red Book of Westmarch, to which Frodo added his own chronicle, The Lord of the Rings. Sean Astin‘s Sam Gamgee is given the book at the end of The Return of the King – so we can probably expect Frodo to introduce the story, perhaps recapping what went down on his quest to destroy the One Ring in Mordor, and flashback to Bilbo’s tale.
Many of the LOTR cast were introduced in the original J.R.R. Tolkien novel, such as Arwen (Liv Tyler) and Gandalf (Ian McKellan). Orlando Bloom and Hugo Weaving are rumored to be in talks to return, and McKellan is supposedly set, as is Andy Serkis, back as everyone’s favorite junkie/ghoul, Gollum. Is all this a shameless way to draw viewers back into Middle Earth, or just good storytelling? Time will tell. The Hobbit is a much more action/adventure-centric tale, and there is a strong chance this entry will be more kid-friendly than the last films.
The Hobbit starts filming in 3D next month, and the first part opens in December 2012.
Are you happy to hear that Frodo will be back, or have you had quite enough of this endless rebooting of past franchises and just want to watch The Lady from Shanghai and get away from the present state of movies for awhile?