Ian McKellen Talks Hobbits And Mutants

…But not to us unfortunately! Sir Ian McKellen, Master of Magnetism and member of The Council of Elrond spoke to the lucky folks at Empire recently about the roles pertaining to my two geeky references – Magneto and Gandalf (the Grey).

First talking about The Hobbit, McKellen told the online mag that scripts would be handed out very soon, leading to more casting news from the film:

“The scripts for the two films will be delivered very soon,” he revealed. “Then they’ll be budgeted, and then they’ll be cast. And they’ll be going when they’ve always said they would be, which is next spring – March or April. Guillermo even told me at one point, ‘We’re going to film for 383 days.’ He’s got that artistic autism! Jackson’s the same; they’re very, very, very alike. They also very different, but they’ve so much in common. They both can’t stand Hollywood and have wonderful imaginations, and they’re both obsessed with gore and fantasy. Both of them laugh a great deal. Guillermo’s one of the most brilliant men I’ve ever met. His English vocabulary is way superior to mine!”

There has been an enthusiastic speculation surrounding the filming of The Lord of the Rings prequel story, with fans calling for the return of other ‘Rings actors on an almost weekly basis. Sadly, Sir Ian McKellen isn’t convinced that we’ll see the return of as many of the cast as fans might like:

“Unfortunately, there won’t be many of the actors going back,” he said, “unless they’re going to put masks on and be disguised as dwarves! Andy Serkis is, at the moment, I think, the only other actor who’s doing this film.”

In spite of McKellen’s own thoughts on the casting, you can also expect to see the return of “Matrix” actor Hugo Weaving as Elrond, as The Hobbit is being split into two separate films in order to tell a deeper story. Another actor worth considering would be Christopher Lee, as I largely expect some of the screen time to address the story of The White Council.

Of course the other film project on every McKellen fan’s lips at the moment is X-Men Origins: Magneto. Sadly, the project hasn’t been shown the same love from Fox as other (in my opinion) less interesting X-Men stories, however McKellen isn’t giving up on it just yet. The problem is, however, that he doesn’t expect to be involved in the prequel at all:

“There’s meant to be a Magneto script floating around, but I’ve not read it, so I suspect it wouldn’t involve me,” he said. “I think it would be about the younger Magneto, and the most I could hope for would be to top and tail that. They can’t have someone whose face is as lined as mine any longer!”

Given the “face lift” that McKellen and Patrick Stewart underwent in X-Men: The Last Stand, I would hope that Fox might include him in the film in some capacity – at least for Eric Lensherr’s later years. Still, we need to see signs of a green light first before any further speculation will be entertained here…

Tags: hobbit, ian mckellen, interview, magneto