Orlando Bloom’s Legolas Returning For ‘The Hobbit’

Peter Jackson’s two-part adaptation of The Hobbit is finally on the right track, having received the long-awaited official greenlight back in October and two weeks later being confirmed to have its production remain where it belongs in New Zealand.

Since then, the news reports having been rolling in with The Hobbit updates and a plethora of casting announcements, including Cate Blanchett returning to the franchise as Galadriel. Now, believe it or not, we can also add Legolas to the list of characters not a part of The Hobbit novel who will play important roles in The Hobbit films.

Deadline has the exclusive which details that Orlando Bloom, who kick-started his career as the fan-favorite Orc-killing archer in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, is close to signing a deal with New Line to play Legolas yet again. Not only will he be making an appearance, but his role is described as being “more than a cameo” as Deadline explains.

Back in the day, the plan for The Hobbit was to make it a standalone movie with a follow-up film acting as a “bridge” between it and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This would’ve allowed for many of the characters we all know and love from the series to return. We even heard from actors including Viggo Mortensen and Dominic Monaghan that they’d love to come back and that they had heard rumblings about the possibility. Keep in mind, this was back when the plan was to have The Hobbit come out next month with the bridge film out in 2011. Things have changed a lot since then.

With Galadriel and Legolas returning to play alongside Martin Freeman’s Bilbo Baggins, this indicates that the screenplays are deviating from the novel in significant ways to help it connect with the Lord of the Rings films, still essentially acting as that  ”bridge,” we had heard about long ago. If it works for the story, I’m all for it and it should generate a lot of excitement and familiarity for casual moviegoers.

This does make me wonder though if the script had always been written for these two elves to return. What if Bloom didn’t choose to come back? Would they recast? Are other characters like Aragorn in the running to return as well?

While Legolas would mark another returnee, key character actors Ian McKellen, Hugo Weaving and Andy Serkis have yet to sign to reprise their roles of Gandalf, Lord Elrond and Gollum respectively. Expect more casting announcement soon, and maybe, some more surprises!

Share your thoughts in the comments and with us on Twitter @rob_keyes and @screenrant.

Part 1 of The Hobbit opens in theaters on December 19, 2012, with part 2 arriving the following December.

Source: Deadline

View the original article here

Original Cast Members Returning for ‘American Pie 4′

We had the chance to chat with Craig Perry, the producer behind the American Pie and Final Destination franchises, and get the scoop on what may be happening next for Stifler, “Band Camp,” Levenstein, and the rest of the American Pie gang.

Most notably, the return of several key characters for American Pie 4.

The producer had not originally intended for American Pie to become the lasting franchise that it is:

“When we were making American Pie, we would watch the dailies and say ‘ohh, it might make 30 million!’ You never really know. You just sort of know when things are working, and are grateful that they are working. It is hard to make any movie really, more to make one that actually works.”

American Pie went on to gross $235 million in worldwide theatrical sales – and inspire two traditional sequels American Pie 2 and American Wedding as well as a (more recent) series of strait to DVD releases. Audiences may now see a return to the original storyline and characters, and another theatrical release for the franchise, with American Pie 4.

Harold And Kumar writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg are penning the script and are also slated to direct the film - which would bring the original cast back together.

Perry is hoping to have a script to look at as soon as the new year. Technically the “new year” could mean any time in 2011 but the film is already (tentatively) scheduled for a 2012 release:

“If we get a script that everyone is exited about, then it is going to be all about the schedule.”

The producer knows that it will require some maneuvering to get all of the original cast members in the same place at the same time:

“Alyson (Hannigan) has got the show (How I Met Your Mother), and the baby. So there are a lot of people with a lot of things to do.”

Despite the challenges, Perry is determined to see a return of the original cast for the next film in the series:

“If you start whittling it down, then it is no longer what it is meant to me. Those characters have become part of the cultural lexicon, and I think there’s an interest in seeing where they are, because they haven’t been on screen in seven years. I think that’s a very effective way of backing into this is having people wonder ‘what did happen to those guys, what did happen to those girls?’”

It looks like, given the right script, audiences will have an answer to that question when American Pie 4 hits theaters in 2012.

Follow me on twitter @jrothc and Screen Rant @screenrant

View the original article here

Howard Shore Returning To Score ‘The Hobbit’

Now that The Hobbit has clawed its way out of that MGM mess and has been given the all-important green light, us fans are free to properly look forward to what Peter Jackson has in store for us with the much-anticipated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved novel.

For a while now we’ve been hearing word of the different cast members being brought onboard for the The Hobbit, including Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, Richard Armitage as the leader of the Company of Dwarves and James Nesbitt as the dwarf Bofur (amongst many other casting additions). Now we have just have to wait for confirmation of those long-standing rumors that Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis will be reprising their roles as Gandalf and Gollum, respectively.

Fans now have one more reason to jump for joy in anticipation of The Hobbit, as it appears that Lord of the Rings composer, Howard Shore, will be returning to compose the musical score for Jackson’s two-part Hobbit epic. The Province spoke to Shore himself:

“We’ve [Shore and Jackson] talked about making these movies [The Hobbit] for many years, at least since 2002… It looks like finally it’s going to be happening. I’ll be working on it for the next three years — it’s going to consume a lot of my time and work now.”

Shore’s score for the LOTR trilogy – which he originally recorded 11 hours of music for – has taken on a life of its own outside of the confines of the films, having been performed over 160 times since 2003. The latest performance will be next week by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Shore regards the music as his best work and says that, “everything I knew about composing, orchestrating, conducting — everything I had learned about music was in it.”

The Lord of the Rings score being conducted

Does anyone really think that Shore won’t do just as stellar of a job with The Hobbit as he did with LOTR? I certainly don’t. His score for the latter somehow managed to be monumentally epic but still feel rather intimate, which perfectly mirrored the journey Frodo and Sam took to destroy the One Ring To Rule Them All.

Fans of The Hobbit novel will know that it has similar attributes to the journey taken in the LOTR but nonetheless falls a lot more on the intimate side of the fence. I have every bit of faith that Shore will help Jackson do justice to the source material.

Both parts of The Hobbit are being shot back-to-back in New Zealand, starting early next year. Part 1 is currently scheduled to hit theaters on December 19th, 2012, while Part 2 will follow a year later in December, 2013.

Source: The Province via Coming Soon

View the original article here