Sir Ian McKellan Talks The HOBBIT Trilogy Expansion and BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH's Screen Test for Smaug

Sir Ian McKellan Talks The HOBBIT Trilogy Expansion and BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH's Screen Test for Smaug

Gandalf himself (Sir Ian McKellan ) tells why the The Hobbit book was expanded into three films and also speaks about Benedict Cumberbatch's screen test as Smaug The Dragon.

By PentoReality - Apr 22, 2013 05:04 PM EST
Filed Under: Fantasy
Source: Metro



Metro sat down with Sir Ian McKellan and asked his why The Hobbit films (originally two) has now became a trilogy, even though The Hobbit book is the smallest out of all of Tolkien's works.

“I thought it was pushing it to make even two films, which is what we were originally doing,” he said, “but then I realised that one of the reasons it does spread into a trilogy is that Tolkien can describe something in under a paragraph that will take far longer to replicate on-screen. For instance, ‘the army advances’; that’s only three words but involves a lot of visual action. It isn’t that the book has been expanded I suppose, it’s that it has gone into all its detail.”

He then went onto speak about Benedict Cumberbatch's performance as the dragon Smaug which was completely done in motion capture, which Sir Ian is confused about.

“Doing motion capture for a part such as that is tricky, I mean how do you play a dragon? Then again, before Lord Of The Rings people were saying how on Earth do you play a Gollum?’”


The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits theaters December 13th 2013
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erth2drew
erth2drew - 4/22/2013, 5:48 PM
interesting i didnt know cumberbtach was mo capping smaug
sanyaya
sanyaya - 4/22/2013, 6:01 PM
YEAHHHHH IM A CUMBERBATCH FAN
marvel72
marvel72 - 4/22/2013, 6:21 PM
he was also the necromancer in the hobbit an unexpected journey.

top actor can't wait to see as smaug.
killerkooljames
killerkooljames - 4/22/2013, 11:16 PM
Grammar should be important and this site is full of errors.
Odin
Odin - 4/23/2013, 5:48 AM
Hope Freeman and Cumberbtach will keep doing Sherlock as well. I don't like the name of the second movie: "Desolation of Smaug", I would've hoped that Jackson could've keep this in just two movies, but then again better bargain on length than quality.
RexDartEskimoSpy
RexDartEskimoSpy - 4/23/2013, 9:36 AM
Bumbershoot must be awfully limber to mo-cap a dragon. Lithe even.

@Odin: "Desolation Of The Dragon" would be so much better.
Tomontherun99
Tomontherun99 - 4/23/2013, 11:31 AM
@Odin Series 3 has started filming now
View Recorder