Evangeline Lilly & Barry Humphries Join Cast of The Hobbit

Peter Jackson yesterday revealed some new cast members for "The Hobbit". Former 'Lost' star Evangeline Lilly has been cast in his two part epic as the woodland elf, Tauriel which means Daughter of Mirkwood. Peter stated that he is thrilled that Evangeline will be bringing the first Sylvan Elf to life. You may of course remember that Evangeline's former partner, Dominic Monaghan starred as 'Merry' in the original Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Another inspired choice of casting comes in the form of Barry Humphries. Best known for his other personas as Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, Barry has been cast as 'The Goblin King' in much the same way as Andy Serkis played Gollum, which can only mean one thing......it's motion capture and a gimp suit for Mr Humphries all the way.

Great casting and it looks as though The Hobbit is coming along nicely. I have had a few emails with a few people saying it looks as though Peter Jackson is 'winging' it with casting still taking place whilst shooting has already begun. This is actually quite normal for most films, especially large scale epics such as this. Sometimes cast members can come and go and you have to remember that not many films' scenes are shot in order of how they appear on screen.

The Hobbit is going to be an amazing spectacle, perhaps even better than Lord of the Rings. Peter is location scouting as I type this in beautiful New Zealand, and with the frame rate he has chosen to shoot in (48fps) and the 3D technology, it will seem like you are really there in middle earth.

Sherlock to become a Dragon !

It was revealed yesterday that Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch will be joining the cast of "The Hobbit" to play Smaug the Dragon via motion capture and also to voice the Necromancer.

Benedict's "Sherlock" co-star Martin Freeman, who himself is playing Bilbo Baggins, revealed that Benedict was joining the cast at the Bafta's last month so it's good to confirm the roles he is playing.

This is of course not the first time an actor has played two roles in a Middle Earth film. John Rhys Davies played both Gimli and voiced Treebeard in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Strangely enough, in a rather odd coincidence John recently voiced the role of Dr Watson in "Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes" ????

It's no surprise really that Benedict has been cast in Peter Jackson's two part epic tale. In the incestuous world of film making its always been a case of six degrees of separation...........or more a case of six degrees of Kevin Bacon.......

Basically.....Peter Jackson is producing and directing the two Hobbit films. He is also producing the Tin Tin films which star Andy Serkis (Gollum) as Captain Haddock. They are being co-written by Steven Moffat and he writes Sherlock, which stars Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch. Its a case of scratch my back and I will scratch yours I guess. In fact , don't be surprised if you see some Hobbit cameos in the second series of Sherlock.

Digital Domain.......the new Pixar ???

Digital Domain, co founded in 1993 by creatures effects god Stan Winston and academy award winning director James Cameron are probably one of the biggest effects houses in the world today. Along with the other big two effects companies ILM and Weta Digital, they are responsible for stunning imagery in films such as "Titanic", "Speed Racer", "The Day After Tomorrow" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." Not content with that they are now branching out into film making in their own right with plans to build a $40 million dollar studio in Florida with the aim of following in Sony Imageworks and ILM's recent foray into the world of animation. 

ILM had some recent success with "Rango", which marked their very first attempt at an animated movie. Sony Imageworks on the other hand have more than proved they can compete with the likes of Pixar and Dreamworks with successful films such as "Open Season" and "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs." 

Can Digital Domain capture what these other studios have done.....to be honest the jury is still out with me. Whilst I have admired Digital Domain's work for many years, for me they have always just lagged behind ILM and Weta when it comes to innovation. Also their recent attempt to create a realistic 'young' looking Jeff Bridges in "Tron Legacy" just didn't pay off and left me feeling a bit creeped out with it all, despite all the other effects blowing me away. 

Creepy Jeff

Creepy 'Dead Eyed' Jeff

As you can see from these two pictures there is something a little "Uncanny Valley" about them.

Ok, so a creepy looking Jeff Bridges isn't enough evidence to suggest Digital Domain are not up to the job of creating some stunning looking CGI animated films I will admit but there is more to making an animated film than just making it look good.

Take London based effects house Framestore for example. Aside from supplying some awesome effects work for films such as Avatar, they have also gone down the complete film production route with films including "Harry Brown", "Triangle" and "Me and Orson Welles". However their attempt at animation was the incredibly dire "Tale of Despereaux". A film that starred a very cute big eared mouse but lacked story, script, heart and characterisation. It was one of the worst films of 2008 despite having big names attached to it. It was no Pixar, that's for sure.

Digital Domain are laying all their hopes on their employment of two ex-Disney employees. Animator Aaron Blaise, whose credits include animating "Pocahontas", "The Lion King", "Beauty and the Beast" and directing "Brother Bear" has been hired along with "Brother Bear's" executive producer Chuck Williams. Chuck has been quoted as saying.

  “As Pixar is struggling with sequels and Disney’s struggling to find itself, I think it’s a good time for us to come in with a different point of view with great family films.” 
I reckon most companies wished they were 'struggling' as much as Pixar. Toy Story 3 grossed over $1 billion in 2010 which is no mean feat for any film, let alone an animated sequel. Pixar have not had a failure yet. Despite "Cars" being their least popular film to date, they are gambling on its sequel "Cars 2" and I think it will be a huge success worldwide, plus the marketing side including the toys alone will probably rake in ten times more that what the film will make, so I'm guessing Pixar are a long way from 'struggling' just yet !

Time will tell I suppose and I really do wish them well but please don't try and knock really, really successful companies when you haven't even dipped your toe in the water first.

From Priesthood to Hollywood

In early May Ubisoft games announced they were creating their own film studio: Ubisoft Motion Pictures. To be totally correct it won't be a fully fledged movie studio but more of a production company but there will be an awful lot of potential in this new kid on the block.

Ubisoft are responsible for games such as Assasins Creed, Prince of Persia (already a motion picture released by Disney), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and those wonderful but annoying Raving Rabbids. Although the movie version of Prince of Persia was classed as a flop, it did bring in over £350 million for Disney but that wasn't enough profit for them from a £200 million budget, and to date they have no plans for a sequel, which is a shame because I actually really enjoyed the film and thought it was a great Arabian romp in the same vein as the Pirates trilogy. So will Ubisoft release a sequel through another studio? Who knows, but I hope so. There is a lot of life in the characters and a lot more story to tell.

More importantly though is whether Ubisoft will be able to make any successful films based on video games at all. In the last decade there have some reasonable adaptations such as Tomb Raider and Resident Evil, but along the way there have been some stinkers such as Hitman, Tekken and Dead or Alive (DOA), so Ubisoft have their work cut out if they want to be taken seriously.

So what should they attempt first? Well, the most obvious title in my view would be a movie adaptation of one of the stand out PS3 release titles, Assassins Creed.  The series spawned multiple sequels for various consoles and has sold millions worldwide. There was also a mini movie/series that only had an official release in France and Canada. Called Assassins Creed: Lineage the film is a prequel to the second game and can be viewed on YouTube.

The film actually has a very polished and professional look as you will see from the video so if Ubisoft can create this from a very modest budget I look forward to seeing what they can do with a few dollars more !

Pixar Gets Motoring Again

When it comes to Pixar releases most people agree they are head and shoulders above the rest. Not one of their films has ever bombed but it would be fair to say that the weakest film from them was Cars...and even that was better than most of Dreamworks efforts.

Despite this Pixar have decided to visit the motoring world again with Cars 2. This time the action takes place away from Radiator Springs and heads overseas where Lightning McQueen and Mater compete in the first World Grand Prix. Add in some spying and espionage and I think this could be a lot better and funnier than the original.

With a cast that includes Owen Wilson, Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer and a release date of 24th June for the US and 22nd July for the UK, get a taste of what's in store with these two trailers. The first is the second trailer released by Pixar and the second is the same trailer, scene by scene...but animated in Lego......and why not ?

Stephen Fry joins cast of The Hobbit

Peter Jackson has just released some exciting news regarding casting for The Hobbit on his Facebook page. Stephen Fry will be joining the cast as The Master of Laketown. 

Apparently Peter has known Stephen for several years and are currently developing a remake of The Dambusters.

I'm very pleased to hear this news as I am a huge fan of Mr Fry's work. He is a true English icon and I am sure he will fit the role very nicely.

Also mentioned in Peter's post is the casting of Conan Stevens, and yes that is his name. Australian born Conan is a professional stuntman and former Pro Wrestler. Soon to be featured in the HBO series Game of Thrones as Ser Gregor Clegane, in The Hobbit he will be playing an Orc named Azog and, at 7 foot tall, should fit the bill extremely well.

From Game-play to Screenplay....

I was pleased to hear recently that a re-boot of the Tomb Raider franchise is under way. GK Films now own the rights, previously owned by Mutual Film company, to the adventures of Lara Croft and have hired Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby to pen the screenplay. Their previous credits include Iron Man, Children of Men and the forthcoming Cowboys & Aliens so I am hoping for a better script that the previous Tomb Raider outings. A change of production company also means a change of producer so Graham King (The Departed, Rango, The Aviator, Blood Diamond and The Tourist) and Tim Headington (Edge of Darkness, The Young Victoria, The Tourist) are in charge of getting this next instalment off the ground, which will be a prequel and will go back to the origins of Lara.

The original Tomb Raider (2001) featured Angelina Jolie in a very pivotal role for her both career wise and personal life. Whilst the film itself may have had its flaws, it remains one of my personal faves of all time for many reasons.....it starred Angelina (enough said)....it was directed by Simon West (director of Con-Air, one of the best action films of all time) and was based on one of my favourite games of all time. It was the first motion picture in 35 years to be allowed access for filming in Cambodia, primarily in Angkor Wat and that stay in Cambodia was to change Ms Jolie's life forever and started her journey into adoption.

Angelina definitely captured the essence of Lara Croft in both Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and the sequel The Cradle of Life but both films suffered from a weak script so this recent news gives the re-boot some hope. According to reports the film is scheduled for release in 2013 but no confirmation on casting has been given. Lets just hope that rumours in recent months suggesting Megan Fox and Kim Kardashian are completely false because I believe that this would kill the franchise stone dead.

If the producers are reading this (unlikely but you never know) then can I make a few suggestions of who I think would make a very good leading lady....

Missy Peregrym - The Canadian born actress is more known for her TV work than film roles but has more than proved her acting chops and also has the athleticism needed for the role.

Mila Kunis - Probably more recently known for her supporting roles in Black Swan and Book of Eli, not a lot of people know she played the part of a young Angelina in Gia. Not only does she look like a young Angelina (great for continuity) but she is a an excellent actress and could more than portray the role of a young Lara Croft.

Katie McGrath - Best known for her role in BBC's Merlin, Kate is a Dublin born actress who hasn't done a great deal of film or TV work but can do a great English accent - essential for the role of Lara.

Romola Garai - A classic English rose whose credits include Vanity Fair, Atonement, TV Mini Series Emma, and more recently The Crimson Petal and the White. She's not exactly a household name but I think that is what is needed for the Tomb Raider franchise to be re-born. It's no good just getting an actress just because she is well known. To portray Lara properly the actress needs to be strong, have a level of vulnerability, be intelligent and most of all......be able to kick ass......which brings me to my last suggestion...

Emily Browning - If anyone can kick ass its Emily Browning. Most recently seen as Baby Doll in Sucker Punch (I actually loved this film and will actually say it out loud with friends....I have no shame). She proved herself in Lemony Snickets and then seemed to disappear from the screens until 2009's The Uninvited. This Australian actress is slowly making quite a name for herself in the film world and I reckon could bring a lot to Tomb Raider table.

For more information on Lara and anything else Tomb Raider related you could do a lot worse than head over to Codename-Croft. This site has everything you need to know regarding Ms Croft and is the most authoritative Tomb Raider site on the net.