Ian McKellen Open to Reprising His Role As Gandalf. I Think That's a Good Idea.

Ian McKellen is the Gandalf. I don't think I'm going out too far on a limb saying that. He nails the performance in the Lord of the Rings films, and was one of the bright points in the Hobbit films when all other lights had gone out (see what I did there?). Both the Middle-earth & J.R.R. Tolkien Blog and The Wrap are reporting that last Saturday, Ian Mckellen appeared on the BBC Radio 2 Graham Norton show and confirmed that he would be open to playing the Gray Wizard in the new Amazon LOTR film series: “But are you suggesting that someone else is going to play it? Gandalf is over 7000 years old, so I’m not too old.”

I think that Amazon would be crazy to pass up having Ian McKellen reprising his role as Gandalf. His performance is absolutely iconic, and I can't imagine anyone else stepping into those particular shoes. However, hiring A-list actors definitely comes with a cost and while Amazon is reportedly giving this new TV series a record breaking budget, they may have to make some hard decisions about where they allocate their resources (actors, special effects, writers, etc.).

We'll keep you posted as more Gandalf-related news becomes available.

Later.

Update: Entertainment Weekly and Gizmodo are running this news as well.

Fox Searchlight Pictures producing Tolkien Film: "A Light in the Darkness"

Fox Searchlight Pictures is producing a new film portraying J.R.R Tolkien's life. The film is written by David Gleeson and directed by Dome Karukoski. Tolkien himself is played by Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road; X-men: Days of Future Past), and Tolkien's wife, Edith Bratt is played by Lily Collins (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones). The movie is listed as still being filmed on IMDB, and not much more information beyond that is available. The working title of the film is "A Light in the Darkness". We'll keep you posted as more information becomes available. With this film in the works and Amazon's new Lord of the Rings series in development, it is definitely an exciting time to be a Tolkien fan! Jump past the break to see four stills from the movie.

NewStatesman on the Amazon Lord of the Rings TV series

NewStatesman has an article by Rebecca Rideal about the new Amazon Lord of the Rings series. Rideal makes some excellent points about the risks and benefits of adapting Middle-earth material to a TV series format; however, I'm not sure she has a full grasp on the legal situation regarding the different Tolkien books . . . she suggests more than once that Amazon might mine the Silmarillion for material, even though it is not at all clear that the Tolkien Estate is prepared to release the film rights for that book.

Additionally, she trots out the "Lord of the Rings is racist" argument towards the end of the article, and suggests that Tolkien's world will need significant updating to bring it up to 21st century standards. To me this smacks of a lack of understanding regarding why Tolkien developed his Legendarium in the first place, but I'm too tired to open up that debate right now. I'll save it that for another post down the road.

Later.

Breaking: A New Digital Lord of the Rings Card Game from Fantasy Flight Interactive!

Back in 2011 I discovered Fantasy Flight Games and the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game. I was immediately captivated––the game provided the geeky fun of a collectible card game like Magic: the Gathering or the old Decipher Star Wars CCG, but set in Middle-earth. For several years (2011 to 2016) I collected the game avidly, before eventually (and very reluctantly) selling my collection for a variety of reasons (mainly lack of time and a lack of people to play with). I've missed the game since then, so I was thrilled when Fantasy Flight Games announced today that they are developing a digital version of the game that will be available for PC and mobile devices. Jump past the break to read more.

Review: Weta Workshop Mini Epics Wave 1, Frodo and Gimli

Ever since Weta Workshop announced their new line of Mini Epics vinyl characters, I'd been eyeing them. So over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, when I saw that they were having a sale, I quickly ordered the Frodo and Gimli figures, which were the two characters from the first wave that I was most excited about. Jump past the break to see photos of the unboxing and get my reaction to this new line of collectibles.