Ian McKellen–excuse me, SIR Ian McKellan, though technically here in the states we don’t need to recognize foreign nobility titles but you’ve got to give credit where credit is due–might be coming back to reprise his Gandalf role in the upcoming Hobbit.
Now, I know we could have some semantic discussion as to whether or not it’s his role or his roles. Suffice it to say he’ll be coming back as Gandalf the Grey, and won’t be getting bleached until later in the series so he’ll be dingy throughout.
You may have heard him say that he “doesn’t want to play Gandalf” again and took it to mean the worst possible thing ever, that he won’t be back to handle the role of Gandalf. But as it turns out, what he meant was that he didn’t want to play “Gandalf” again but in SOME OTHER MOVIE. He doesn’t want to, for example, play Dumbledore or Merlin. He’s played Gandalf, as far as he’s concerned he’s played the BEST wizard role, and he means to stick with it.
This is frankly great news. McKellen did an amazing job with Gandalf, even though I was only occasionally happy with the Lord of the Rings series, and I’m very much looking forward to having that man back.
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Yeah, I know–nothing like a conclusive headline to get everybody’s interest, but the fact of the matter is that we have nary clue one as to Viggo Mortensen’s true plans vis-a-vis his acting career.
Not long ago, he suggested that unless a really good acting role came up, he was going to stick with his music and visual art for the next couple years or so. But then at the Toronto Film Festival, he subsequently went on record to say that he had no plans to retire. I suppose it’s possible that he could retire–he almost certainly made enough cash on the Lord of the Rings series to never, ever need to walk into work again.
Especially since we should be seeing him coming back to handle the Strider role in the upcoming Hobbit movie? Sadly, we don’t know. I can’t imagine him not being involved, but the way Hollywood is these days? Anything’s possible, from the ground up.
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If you were hoping to see the 69 year old actor, Ian McKellen, nude in the public television screening of King Lear, then you better think again. Having already been released on DVD, King Lear featured the actor in a full-frontal nude scene. And for those who don’t know, King Lear is a screenplay originally written by Shakespeare in the 1600s.
The scene was cut completely from the upcoming TV version, but fret not as McKellen states that the removal of the scene won’t detract from the movies quality.
Ian McKellen can attribute his fame to the role of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
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