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Videogum tends to eschew behind-the-scenes movie casting news because in an absurd, God-less world bent on its own destruction, it seems kind of silly to spend too much time thinking/talking about a movie that’s not coming out for two years. Some of us have rent to pay, and a torn pair of pants that we’ve been avoiding carrying two blocks to the tailor for months, so excuse us if our heads aren’t falling off that Joss Whedon had a meeting in a board room in Hollywood that appears to have been “promising.” And yet, I’m definitely pretty excited (no dorko) that Peter Jackson has officially signed on to make two The Hobbit movies, and I’m pretty excited (no dweebo) that Martin Freeman (Tim from The Office UK, no duhhh) has been cast as Bilbo Baggins. (Although I’d be even more excited if Martin Freeman was cast as Tim from The Office UK. But still in The Hobbit. I’m not sure how it would work, but that wouldn’t be my problem. That would be Peter Jackson’s problem.) Anyway, cool news, ain’t it? (Barf.) The Lord of the Rings movies were so good (no nerdo), so the prospect of more of them is appealing.
But in the announcement confirming Martin Freeman’s casting, Peter Jackson gives him a TOTAL bompliment*! Look at this:
“Despite the various rumours and speculation surrounding this role, there has only ever been one Bilbo Baggins for us,” says Peter Jackson. “There are a few times in your career when you come across an actor who you know was born to play a role, but that was the case as soon as I met Martin. He is intelligent, funny, surprising and brave – exactly like Bilbo and I feel incredibly proud to be able to announce that he is our Hobbit.”
Yes, this is a major motion picture that is going to be seen by millions of people. Yes, this is a great development in the career of Martin Freeman. Yes, he’s going to make a lot of money. Yes, Bilbo Baggins is a beloved character. But, I don’t know, saying that someone was “BORN TO PLAY” a two-foot-tall jewelry fanatic who lives in a hole in the ground seems a little backhanded. “There are a few times in your career when you come across an actor of such diminutive stature, who has such pointy ears and such glittering, mischievous eyes, with naturally hairy knuckles and toes, that you just want to dress him up in silk shirts and leather vests, stick a pipe in his mouth, and have him speak in musical riddles.” Basically. Relax, skinny Peter Jackson. We all still remember how fat you were.
Also, whatever. Martin Freeman’s about to get so much pussy, you guys! (Quote via TheDailyWhat.)
*Bompliment (n): back-handed compliment.
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I hear that MORGAN Freeman has been cast in Real Life as his own step-grandson.
Yeah, every time I read about this announcement I read it wrong and picture Morgan Freeman as Bilbo Baggins. Yikes.
Betty White is hard.
I remember being a very small child and watching the animated Hobbit. It absolutely terrified me, but the most scary part was when the goblins (or whatever?) sang about what Bilbo Baggins likes. I didn’t sleep for days.
What I’m saying is, Martin Freeman will make it all better.
I bought that movie off the $5 rack at Target not too long ago. THIS JUST IN: it’s still terrifying.
I’m glad to know I wasn’t just a wuss. I still can’t think about it for too long, even now. The memory of it alone freaks me out.
It was all about animated Gollum. This shit:
Not so much this shit:
I think it was the dwarves? It was scary, which makes no sense in retrospect, because aren’t the dwarves his friends? /small sad nerd
That was my favorite movie growing up (looking back on how scary it was I can’t believe I loved it so much). You know what I remember the most about it though? The sound effects, like the sound the sword made every time Bilbo pulled it out.
TWSS
Isn’t Martin Freeman also Watson in the BBC Sherlock series? Everything’s coming up Martin Freeman these days!!!
Ahhhh that show is the BEST. Except the second episode. But 1 and 3 are apple pie.
Is Martin Freeman the next Justin Beiber? Perhaps.
That series pretty much rocks my sock off!
See!
One of the few Sherlock Holmes’s where Watson was the hotter of the pair.
Elementary.
Benedict Cumberbatch and I are like, really?
I think we can find a way to get along
It’s a case of an extremely good hair day, you guys. Seriously. Watch him in anything else he’s ever been in, and you’ll be all “that Benedict Cumberbatch guy looks goofy.” Because he does. Usually.
(Google Image search)
… Now he looks kinda like NPH! YES PLEASE.
(I have a thing for goofy geeky guys, what can I say.)
Cindi, we can totally get along! But I want to make sure Mrs. Hudson understands that we’ll still be needing that second bedroom.
This gives me warm fuzzy feelings of lying on the floor in my childhood dining room while my whole family sat around and listened to The Hobbit on cassette tape and made popcorn garland for the Christmas tree. Before it was interrupted by someone throwing a full pickle jar through the window.
Nice… I like my comments with a twist ending.
Then perhaps you will enjoy this comment, which penis.
Yes I did enjoy that comment very much, but I think you’re mixing up a twist ending with tourettes. Highly effective either way.
So Martin Freeman will have played Arthur Dent, Dr Watson and now Bilbo Baggins in various screen adaptations.
“I read books”
~ Martin Freeman
I prefer to think that these decisions are made for the sole purpose of wooing me. Enough already, Martin Freeman! You had me at The Office UK!
Oh, there will be, Bing. There will be.
poor Steve Keebler was lead to believe he had a shot…
“And I feel incredibly proud to be able to announce that he is our Hobbit.”
http://media.photobucket.com/image/gif%20hug/verde04/Gif/bear-hug.gif?o=27
Let me fix that for you:
I don’t know why duffy posted this gif but now I feel like this is you and duffy hugging because you helped him out.
I give this 2 thumbs up!
Freeman FUCKIN KILLED it in Hitchhiker’s GUIDE despite the NUMEROUS problems WITH THAT film.
Numerous? The only real problem I had with the film was that it wasn’t the book. Oh, and the Trillian/Arthur romance was deeply forced. But Stephen Fry as the voice of The Guide and Alan Rickman voicing Marvin? Sam Rockwell as Zaphod? Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast? Genius.
And the new things in the film that weren’t in any other form of Hitchhiker’s (the flyswat creatures on the Vogon planet, the gun, Humma Kavula as religous leader played by JOHN FECKIN’ MALKOVICH!) were all solid, and would’ve slotted in with the book/TV series nicely.
In conclusion, I will defend the film to the grave.
I REALLY like the FILM, BUT it relied too HEAVILY on slapstick HUMOR and broader SHIT THAN the books, radio SHOW, and television. BUT LET’S not argue because I really LIKE IT and am usually THE ONE defending IT. It has NUMEROUS flaws TO ME is probably WHAT I should have said. It’s LIKE HAVING A kid that’s great after HAVING 3 near perfect CHILDREN.
I’m so excited people remember this film! Hitchhiker’s Guide, like I’m sure most here can relate, is very dear to my heart. I was also a bit sad that it wasn’t really the book, but my consolation was the Douglas Adams had a part in the script so he knew what he was doing when he did it.
Oh, and don’t forget Mos Def as Ford. Nontraditional casting, and I thought it worked. (That and he’s a fox, to say the least.)
I just upvoted this really hard. I am continuously standing up for this film. To the death!
“… numerous problems with that film notwithstanding.” Sorry, can’t help it sometimes. Obnoxious grammar and House, M.D.
Whoops, downvote away monsters
I look forward to the sad glances at the camera Bilbo will make every time that Smaug says something idiotic.
“When people say to me: would you rather be thought of as a funny dwarf or a great boss? My answer’s always the same, to me, they’re not mutually exclusive.” — Thorin Oakenshield Brent
The Smaug casting announcement should be coming soon:
Smaug: Hello?
Bilbo: You’re a cock!
My name is Ricky Gervais, and I’d like to make a suggestion to Peter Jackson.
AWWW DAMMIT. I done plagiarized your picture. Or perhaps you have pulled off an inception on me in the ten seconds it took to find a picture of Gollum on the internet.
10 seconds is 10 minutes. Another level down, and 10 minutes is like 10 years. I had sooo much time.
Martin Freeman is great, but on the other hand, I read The Hobbit in middle school and found it to be total snoresville, which really turned me off from ever trying to read the rest of the series. Then the hype around the movies just ended up annoying me and made me even LESS interested. It’s a vicious cycle, and I’m not sure even Arthur Dent can save it for me.
It is a total snoresville. There’s no dynamic, it’s a story about a midget who wants to steal the dragon’s gold. It’s like really bad fantasy fan fiction, or fantasy fan fiction by someone who has only a basic surface understanding of fantasy literature.
“…or fantasy fan fiction by someone who has only a basic surface understanding of fantasy literature.”
I think you may just not be a Tolkien fan in general…. did you ever read/like the Lord of the Rings books? I don’t know, I first read The Hobbit in grade school and I thought it was FUCKING awesome, but at that point in my life I was also a mostly-friendless, cross-dressing little nerd, so 9-year-old-me is not an ideal critic.
That may be the ultimate blompliment. I’m debating if “You sound like you could be a radio host” is worse.
You look like you should be a radio host.
Look at fancy Gabe! Going to a tailor with his torn pants, instead of putting a patch of duct tape on them like the rest of us.
Ever since he fell into bed with Sony, Gabe has taken to going to tailors and wearing top hats for all occasions. Can’t say I blame him.
Pants and duct tape?! I didn’t know I was hanging around with such a high class. A bare ass in the breeze was good enough for my granddad. It was good enough for my dad. Goddammit, it’s good enough for me.
Was that before or after he got kicked in the head by that mule?
I’ve literally have been walking around with a hole in the crotch of my favorite pair of jeans like some kind of goblin.
A crotch goblin?
Look guys, there are a lot of ways that REGULAR people can deal with holes in their pants. But I think we ALL agree that we don’t need to go throwing money in the trash with “tailors”. That’s the rich man buying away his problems.
“But the tailor is on the way home from the foie grassery.”
soundtrack by leonard nimoy.
I don’t have anything funny to say about this. I am just very very excited. Yes nerdo.
No doubt:
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole,
and that means comfort.”
Best opening sentence ever? Certainly Top 10.
Can’t wait for John Kransinski in the sub-par American remake.
Actually, for the first couple chapters it’s the exact same. But after that, they really have their own unique spin on it and it takes off.
They’re DWARVES, singing about what he HATES, which is that he hates when dwarves come over to party and break all his dishes. Also I think all the songs in the cartoon (not the main theme, but the ones sung by characters) are taken right from the books, where the lyrics are all written out Pynchon-style. Along with Tom Bombadil, the songs were something I really missed form the LOTR books.
Aaaah the missing Tom Bombadil…an elimination that broke my heart and continues to haunt me.
I’m going to go ahead and say what no-one else is thinking, which is that I am looking at that picture of Martin Freeman right now, and I want to dress him up in silk shirts and leather vests, stick a pipe in his mouth, and have him speak in musical riddles, WITH MY PANTS OFF. That is all.
“That’s fine. Just try not to make a HOBBIT of it.”
I’d bomp that.
Tom Bompliment?
“Yes, this is a major motion picture that is going to be seen by millions of people.”
You know what’s cooler than millions, Gabe? BILLIONS.