Rhys-Davies Panel on The Hobbit

The Lord of The Rings' Gimli, John Rhys-Davies, was at the Sydney Armageddon Expo that was held over the weekend. During his panel he briefly spoke about the The Hobbit and mentioned that he offered his experience for the new crop of dwarves for the film. From the One Ring:

He said that he would love to return because he had such a brilliant time with ‘The Lord of the Rings’, but would be unable to, due to the toll that his prosthetic. Nothing new. To quote him, “I was asked to return as one of the 13 dwarves, and I thought, why would I want to be one of 13 when I could be one of one?”

Probably the most interesting thing to come from it was that he mentioned he rang Matt Dravitszki, Peter Jackson’s assistant, a week before Jackson went to hospital, asking if they wanted him down in New Zealand to be a “dwarf assistant”, talking to the new actors and helping them out here and there with his experiences. He said they never returned his call.

Finally, he said that the 13 new dwarves have his “deepest sympathies” and that he is eagerly awaiting ‘The Hobbit’ just as much as anybody else.