h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When were we talking about Tom Baker?

didn't Awix mention him somewhere as a potential Moody?

Incidentally, if McKellan has expressed interest in a part that is NOT Dumbledore, d'you think it would be Moody, Karkaroff, Crouch or Bagman (unlikely to be the last I think)

And when are they going to cast Brian Blessed - I'm sure he has to be in it sometime.

We were talking about Tom Baker as he's apparently on the shortlist to be the new Dumbledore. (Though many people already had him pegged as a potential Moody - hey, what about Ron Moody as Dumbledore? He's not dead is he?)

This morning's paper revealed that McKellen and Michael Gambon are supposedly the two front runners, but I can't see McKellen wanting to take on such a very similar part to Gandalf so soon. (Especially if a movie of The Hobbit is now on the cards, as everyone seems to think.)

The Hobbit? Ian Holm is too old to be Bilbo at that age, listening to the commentary (on super-dooper DVD) they said they taped his face back for the scene when he found the ring to try and make him look younger, like a mini facelift.
And who else could be Bilbo?

Brian Blessed helpfully has no piccy on IMDB, is he the one that looks rather like John Rhys-Davies?

*waits for large 'NO' to emerge*

Mmm, he does, sort of.

They'll find another Bilbo. For example, Jim Broadbent (just off the top of my head). Saying 'there'll never be another Bilbo' is like saying 'there'll never be another Dumbledore'.

A lot of people couldn't imagine the Rings characters being played by people other than the ones in the BBC version, but the films are working out just about okay...

LOL - but there could never be another Gandalf - or should never be... imagine if they *had* cast Sean Connery!



Broadbent for Dumbledore?

I know there could be another Bilbo, I just meant I couldn't think of one off the top of my head. And it would be helpful if it was someone reasonably short (although not impossible even if he were 6'3).

Broadbent for Dumbledore? Not old enough, for a start. I do hope they try to keep the same tone for him, and don't go messing around just because it's a different guy wearing the hat.

Hi :o)

It seems you like LotR and HP. So I have a question for you...
If you could invent one character of your choice, what would they be like and what film would they star in?

Hi Arwen. (Really dug that 'if you want him, come and claim him' thing you did...)

What, you mean invent a completely new character to put in a film or TV series? Well purely from a looking-to-be-successful point of view I've noticed a lot of these characters are orphans growing up in a quiet part of the world, looked after by their uncles, who end up getting mentored by white-bearded old wizards and chased by Dark Lords. So I'd probably do another one of those, simply for the merchandising rights.

Failing that, a guy who's an international adventurer (very popular with the ladies, too) by day, but by night he reviews films on the internet. No, wait, that's me. Well, half of it.

Real ladies don't often go for that sort.

Hmmm. Failing a lady, I'd settle for a woman...

(God, the tone of this thread is falling faster than a cluster bomb towards Iraq...)

Having read the 4 Harry Potter books, I cant help but notice simularities between them and the 'Rings books...

(Am I alone in noticing this?)

Well, it all ties in with Joe Campbell's anthropological ideas about why certain stories feel 'right' and have this legendary quality.

There was a TV show about 5 years back which everyone said was *very* like LOTR in terms of the shape of the plot and some of the stuff that happened, eg there was a place in it called Z'H'Dum where the hero fell to his death (he later got better), not totally dissimilar to Gandalf's fall at Khazad-Dum and subsequent resurrection.

So I'm not sure it's a case of HP knocking off LOTR as much as it is both stories tapping into the same primal myth structures...

Yeah I guess so...

Wow my last post sounds pretentious now I read it back again. Never mind!

Very pretentious, but it's true. Not a conscious rip-off, but go look at Star Wars as well, it's all about the same thing.

I sort of meant to allude to that in the long & pretentious post.

Although in the case of SW, it *was* a conscious attempt by GL to tap into the 'primal myth' Campbell talks about. (There are also elements of it in the legend of King Arthur and - tangentially - the Superman origin story.)

Sure.

There are few things more dismaying than a cynical teenager...

I'm not cynical if it's well done.

(actually I'm not even a teenager anymore, so I don't qualify)