AnthonyPearson
What are your plans with the casting of Bilbo Baggins? Is Ian Holm still an option?
Guillermo del Toro
The fact that Ian Holm is SO memorable means that PJ, Fran and PB did their job right. We will utilize him in some fashion for sure but the difficulty of the role will be better assesed after we do the script (s).

WetaHost
1 - Which of the actors from LOTR will be back to reprise their roles in The Hobbit and its companion film?
Guillermo del Toro
Obviously, at this stage, the second film is still being figured out- so the actors that have been approached may or not have appeared in the HOBBIT as a literary work but still may appear in the second film as it “blends” into the Trilogy and expands. Therefore what can be said is: Unequivocally, every single actor that originated a role in the Trilogy will be asked to participate and reprise it. If Health, availability or willigness become obstacles – and only in that case recasting would be considered.
Peter Jackson
Like Guillermo says, apart from extreme circumstances, we would never recast a character who appeared in the LOTR trilogy. You can read The Hobbit and pretty much see which characters play a part. The unknown facter is Film Two, which we are still developing. If we wished to write one of the LOTR characters into the narrative of Film Two, we would only do that with that actors blessing, and willingess to take part. Otherwise we'd take the writing in another direction.

Casting is not closed... at all- we will not choose casting until after we finish the scripts. Period.

So, no- No talks are bound to take place with any actor to play Bilbo in the near future. Pages come first.

Some of the stuff reported there is just a tad too insane...

Best

When its a fact- You'll hear it from me first- and, very likely, right here.

Bilbo is an incredibly dificult and taxing part to cast, physically exhausting- appearing in every scene of the HOBBIT film and a large portion of the second and exposed to elements, brutal travelling, inclement scheduling, etc, etc There's no two ways about it-

Keep that in mind.

Yr Obt Svt

GDT

Im missing a bit ... Where though does it say by either Guillermo or Peter Jackson that Ian Holm will not be reprising his role in the Hobbit?
Any one got a link to that?

Right now its still too early and the papers leap to more conclusions than we fans do. Because, at least we (fans) talk about it and don't take it as fact. I think what happened was GDT or PJ implied through either a post on this forum, or during the live chat that Bilbo would be recast, and that is being extrapolated by newspaper hyperbole... now some thought written somewhere, possibly here on this forum has led to Stuff.co.nz, and Dominion Post to state that Holm will be narrating.

I'm kind of confused about the "News on the Christopher Tolkien Lawsuit Coming Soon?" article on the main page right now because it quotes the Times Online's terribly misinformed article which is full of hyperbole. If it is going to be quoted on the main page should we or rather tORN at least make mention of the possible inaccuracies or unfounded exagerrations in the Times article? Leaving it unrefuted and putting in on the main page just further perpetuates what is quite likely largely a misleading article. Given we have discussed the topic thoroughly already, I'm concerned it will open up a can of worms again among any newbies showing up to the site, or people who have been absent.

What I'm saying is, I think that quote on the main page needs some sort of annotation by a tORN staff member.

Huh? No I was not airing any beef with anyone. I was not challenging the poster of the message either. Re-read my post. I was talking about the Times Online. My only concern was the main page's coverage not having any mention of Times Online being a little unreliable. Really, I have no problem with anyone here, and I certainly was not airing any beef.

I hope that clears things up? :-/

Wow, that caught me off guard.