We’ve had umpteen casting announcements, a video blog, a few Facebook announcements, and now, finally, after production has begun in New Zealand, director Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings) and MGM have announced the official titles for The Hobbit films.
The two films; which form a one-story Lord of the Rings prequel based on the adventures of Ian Holm’s character Bilbo (to be played in the new movies by The Offices Martin Freeman); are to be titled The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and The Hobbit: There and Back Again.
Returning cast members (from the Lord of the Rings trilogy) include Deep Impact’s Elijah Wood (as Frodo), Burke and Hare’s Andy Serkis (as Smeagol/Gollum), Pirates of the Caribbean’s Orlando Bloom (as the Wood Elf Legolas), The Matrix’s Hugo Weaving (as the Elf Elrond), Hanna’s Cate Blanchett (as the Elf Galadriel), and Ian McKellen (as the wizard Gandalf the Grey).
Newcomers to the franchise include Richard Armitage (Spooks), Stephen Fry (Bones), James Nesbitt (The Way), and a whole host of other, mostly little known, actors that will make up the party of Dwarves and other companions that Bilbo and co. will meet along the journey to the Misty Mountain; when An Unexpected Journey is released on December 14 2012, and There and Back Again meets its release date on December 13th 2013.
Matt Wheeldon.
Source: Peter Jackson.
