Weaving Comments on The Hobbit Trilogy

While promoting his next film Cloud Atlas, Hugo Weaving (Elrond) spoke with Collider about various other projects including The Hobbit Trilogy. He commented that the Battle of Five Armies has not yet completely filmed and that he knows about as much how Peter Jackson will create the three films as we do. He is mostly out of the loop because he had finished filming his part in the 4-5 weeks he was on set.

Collider: When did you find out that The Hobbit movies would be a trilogy, and what were your thoughts about that?
HUGO WEAVING: I found out The Hobbit was going to be a trilogy quite recently, when everyone else found out about it. Originally, when I said goodbye to Pete [Jackson] in L.A., I said, “I’ll see you on The Hobbit,” and he said, “Well, I’m not doing The Hobbit.” And then, it was, “We are doing The Hobbit, but I’m not going to direct it.” And then, it was, “Well, I am directing it now.” And then, it was, “Actually, we’re doing The Hobbit in two films.” So, when I went to shoot it out there, there were two scripts and two films. Now, I’ve just found out, not that long ago, when it was announced. He said, “Well, we’ve got all this fabulous material and these wonderful people.” They hadn’t filmed the final battle sequence yet, which would have been at the end of 2. For a number of reasons, they decided that there are three films in there. I hope there are. I don’t know. I was truly there for four or five weeks and enjoyed myself, and went home again. My knowledge of the workings of Middle Earth, at the moment, are very minimal.

Hugo Weaving Comments on The Hobbit Filming Experience

In an interview with the AV Club that kind of acts as a mini career retrospective, Hugo Weaving (Elrond) answered various questions about the movies he was in including The Hobbit. He spoke about how filming on The Hobbit didn't really feel that different from his Lord of Rings experience since it often involved much of the same cast and crew. The Hobbit segment is below, click here to read the entire interview.

AVC: How different was making the Hobbit movies from doing the Lord Of The Rings trilogy?
HW: Well, tonally, I think the film is slightly different, but the experience didn’t seem radically different, to be honest. If anything, it was slightly more green-screen and slightly less set. But a lot of the same people, both in the crew and some of the cast. Going back and standing with Ian McKellen on the set again 10 years later, we felt very much at home, in a way, and very much like no time had passed at all. A lot of the other cast were different from The Lord Of The Rings, but it felt like a very similar experience. Actually, I was back there just the other day doing some post-production and went onto set, and I was just thinking, “Well, it’s been a year since I’ve been here—10 years, really, since we started—but it feels like the same family group has been making films there for that long.”

AVC: In the trailer, Bag End looks exactly as it does when we see Bilbo living there in the trilogy. Is it the same set?
HW: You know, I’m not sure. I would hesitate to say it was. I would think it wasn’t. But there may be some elements. I would have thought not, but possibly, yeah.

Weaving on Hobbit in 3D, Returning to Middle-Earth

In an interview with Collider, Hugo Weaving (Elrond) spoke about his recent movies with Last Ride, Cloud Atlas and The Hobbit. While light on details, he did talk glowingly of returning to the world of Middle-Earth and how he thought "will work incredibly well" for the films. The entire interview is here, The Hobbit related portions below.

What was it like to be on The Hobbit set, for the first time? Did it feel weird to be playing Elrond again, but 60 years before The Lord of the Rings? How was the tone and world different?
WEAVING: Yeah! In some ways, it was a lot of fun to go back and be on a Rivendell set again with Ian McKellan. It was really lovely to see some old friends and old faces again, and to go back into a similar world, which is tonally a little bit different. You’re in the same world, but the story has a different tone. Peter [Jackson] and Fran [Walsh] are just lovely people, and there’s a particular frustratingly wonderful energy about working on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The project is so massive and there are so many people. It makes it frustrating for everyone because things just take time and you don’t know what’s happening. You don’t know what’s going on, despite all the best intentions, but the people are so lovely that you just accept, “Well, this is the way this particular world is.” You live from day to day and from moment to moment, doing the best you can. There’s a delightful atmosphere there, so it was lovely. I’ve literally just come back from there a couple days ago, having done post-production on that, so it was really nice to see everyone again.

What are your thoughts on the film shooting in 48fps and also in 3D? Did it help to immediately be able to see how it would look in playback?
WEAVING: Yeah, absolutely. I think the 3D will work incredibly well for The Hobbit. I don’t think it does for everything, and I don’t think it should for everything. To some extent, 3D is just a gimmick, but sometimes it works wonderfully well. With something like Cave of Forgotten Dreams, the Werner Herzog film, you think, “Why is this in 3D?,” but it’s actually wonderful in 3D. It’s a documentary, but it works incredibly well. And then, there are some other films where you think, “This might be in 3D, but the way in which it’s been put into 3D or the way in which it’s being used is too obvious or it seems gimmicky.” I don’t get a lot from the 3D experience, generally, but for certain films, I think it works really wonderfully well, and I suspect The Hobbit will be one of them. For that particular world, I think it’s probably a really fabulous natural exploration of it. With some other things, the 3D doesn’t work so well. I’d rather see something like Last Ride or a small film on a flat screen, rather than with black glasses. That’s impressive enough, as it is.

The Hobbit Entertainment Weekly Cover, Gallery

It has been a while since we have had anything cool come from the Hobbit outside of the production videos but thanks to the San Diego Comic-Con, that drought may come to an end. It starts with this week's Entertainment Weekly issue that is a preview of next week's con with 10 pictures to enjoy. Some are from filming, some seem to be frames from the movie but most are just the actors in full character makeup looking awesome. The pictures show Bilbo in Mirkwood Forest, Gandalf in front of Bags End, the company of Dwarves, Elrond, Galadriel, and more. The start of the gallery can be found here.

Weaving "Would Love" to Return to Middle Earth

In a new interview with MTV, Hugo Weaving indicated he "would love" to return to Middle-Earth and reprise his role as Elrond for the two Hobbit films. The character does have an in appearance in the novel and Peter Jackson has indicated that Gandalf, Galadriel and Elrond have been written into the films’ script.

After Gandalf saves the group from trolls and advises them to stop at the Elven outpost, the soon-to-be-cast Bilbo will encounter Weaving's Elrond, who will enlighten their journey. “[Elrond] is able to read their map,” Weaving explained. “It’s a star map, and he could read star maps. So that’s Elrond in the book.”

“Now, in the film, I don’t know where they’ve gone with it,” Weaving explained, expressing some hope that Elrond gets a bit more to do -– especially so he could appear in both films. “Because [screenwriters Jackson, del Toro, Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh] expanded it, I think, to a couple of films.”

“[I’ll be] reading the star map,” Weaving said with a grin, promising we’ll see him again soon enough.

The fourth character referenced in the video above is likely Gollum (Andy Serkis).

Weaver Debunks Casting Rumor

Hugo Weaving (Elrond) has said to Moviehole that he is not yet cast in The Hobbit films despite what Guillermo Del Toro indicated before.

“I knew that if and when it happened I’d get a call and we’d chat about it, but I haven’t spoken to anyone about it. Someone said to me ‘I hear you’re doing the Hobbit?’ I said ‘Well, um, probably’, they said “No, no. you’ve signed on’. I haven’t actually talked to anyone about it. Doesn’t mean I won’t be doing it, [I’m] just not onboard yet.”

Weaving hasn’t met the prequel’s director but says the he’s “really excited that [Del Toro] is directing. He’s a fantastic choice – an absolutely wonderful choice, just brilliant. It’d be good to get back together with Andy Serkis and Ian McKellan, and whoever else comes back – there’s not many other characters that could come back I guess. Bilbo is back, but you’ve got to have a much younger version of the character. Whereas Elves and Wizards it doesn’t matter – you might just have to age me back though”, he laughs.

This really isn't a surprise as the film is still in the scripting and pre-production phrase so it is unlikely that anyone is contractually bound to film. All Del Toro was saying is their characters are in the movie and the roles are theirs if they want them. The real problem, as it was with the trilogy after the first film did huge box office, will be the money as all the actors are now very experienced at that game and will likely be making very expensive demands in compensation.

Del Toro Reveals New Hobbit Details

In an interview with BBC Radio's Simon Mayo Show, The Hobbit Director Guillermo del Toro provided the first meaningful update about the production. Del Toro that a Andy Serkis (Gollum), Ian McKellen (Gandalf), and Hugo Weaving (Elrond) will all reprise their Lord of the Rings Trilogy roles. He also provided a few plot details.

the film will take some liberties with sub-plot material that is briefly discussed in the book. Most notably among this, is Gandalf's departure from Bilbo and the Dwarves to confer with The White Council in Dol Guldur on dealing with an entity called the Necromancer (which later turns out to be Sauron himself.) We've always suspected this based on some statements, but this time, the intention to document Gandalf's quest (which is not covered greatly in the book) was articulated clearly. This is an excellent move, and should make the "Hobbit to Lord of the Rings" transition seem all the more smooth. Hopefully, it will be done in such a way that even casual audiences will be able to make the connection.

Finally, regarding Smaug the Dragon, del Toro revealed that after eight whole months of design work, they have only just “cracked the basic engineering.” It is anticipated that another six or seven months of application will be needed before the great flying, fire-breathing, gold smuggler will be in any kind of presentable form. (Holy crap, he should look AMAZING!)