Entertainment Weekly has debuted the first photos from The Hobbit to feature Martin Freeman as the film’s lead character Bilbo Baggins and to little surprise it looks just like a return to Middle Earth.
They’re story comes with a quote from Peter Jackson, speaking of Freeman saying, ”He fits the ears, and he’s got some very nice feet… I think he’s got the biggest hobbit feet we’ve had so far. They’re a little bit hard to walk in, but he’s managed to figure out the perfect hobbit gait.”
As for the above picture of Ian McKellen who is returning as Gandalf, Jackson said, ”He’s in fantastic form… In a way, his role in The Hobbit has more technical difficulties than Lord of the Rings did, because he has scenes with 14 smaller characters — obviously the dwarves and the hobbit are shorter… I remember saying to him [laughs], ”Look, this isn’t Waiting for Godot or King Lear. This is The Hobbit. This is the real thing.”
Along with Freeman and McKellen, the cast includes returning actors playing the same role they played in the Lord of the Rings trilogy are Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, Ian Holm, Hugo Weaving, Orlando Bloom and Christopher Lee. New members to the cast include Richard Armitage, John Callen, Stephen Fry, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Stephen Hunter, Graham McTavish, James Nesbitt, Lee Pace, Mikael Persbrandt, Aidan Turner, Luke Evans, Evangeline Lilly, Barry Humphries and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Production on The Hobbit is already underway in New Zealand with both films shooting at the same time. The first one, referred to as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will hit theaters on December 14, 2012 and second film, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, is slated for release on December 13, 2013.
