I was in the play The Hobbit and I'm quite curious how the movie will turn out and I hope they don't do any drastic changes.

Just did a double-take there, I thought you said you were playing in The Hobbit. (as in, the upcoming movie)

Would have had some questions for you. :p

There's a play? Or was this an independant thing that you were part of? Like with school or something?

So... apparently Hugo Weaving is back as Elrond, which I'm happy to hear. I hate when characters get recast, and, despite the prevailing opinion, I liked him as Elrond in the trilogy. Even if his character did get butchered.

Edit: actually, that was over a year ago that that was confirmed, back when GDT was still directing. In that case, I hope he ends up getting the part still.

Looking some more, it sounds like Hugo Weaving is confirmed, which I'm thankful for.

Going by the cast list I was looking at, we'll also be seeing Galadriel, Legolas, Radagast the Brown, Drogo Baggins, Frodo, and old Bilbo, for characters who weren't in the book. I'm "meh" on the Hobbits and Legolas, but looking forward to seeing Radagast.

I like Hugo Weaving too. I think it would be a bit odd to see him as anyone else, especially since he played the guy in both past and future roles in Fellowship, so it would be really odd for a different Elrond to show up sometime in between.

I like him, though in all honesty, I still can't help but imagine the avatar I saw on another forum where an individual had a picture of Elrond wearing shades and a speech bubble that read, "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson." Add some green numbers in the backdrop.

I'd like to see Radagast. He wasn't much of a character in LOTR but I do remember the guy. I was on the lookout for more of the colour guys but there didn't seem to be any more beyond the three.

Is Cate Blanchett back as Galadriel? I know my dad griped that he didn't think she was attractive enough to play her. I thought she had the mysterious and elfy bit down pretty well, but I don't really have much of a reference to compare her to.

Yeah, I didn't see the Matrix movies until a year or two ago, so it was Elrond playing an Agent for me, not that other way around. :p

Cate Blanchett is indeed back as Galadriel. I thought she did rather well, as I've never really read book-Galadriel as being sensuously pretty and attractive so much as sublimely, almost abstractly and ethereally beautiful, almost literally inhumanly beautiful, to the point where it nearly crosses a line into disturbing or creepy, which I thought she portrayed almost perfectly.

I doubt it was generally being sensuous and pretty that he was commenting on, but I can imagine portraying that otherworldy-ness would be really difficult given we have only mere mortal actors to work with. Not without some manner of special effects anyway.

I think they did use mild CG on her in the films. :p

I think everyone had a wee bit of CG done now and then. Or a lot of make-up, but that's a given.

Huh, why do you doubt it will be a good movie?
The Lord of the Rings is one of the BEST adaptions ever. I haven't seen any movie that came as close to the feeling of the book as LotR... why would it be different for The Hobbit?

I just hope The Hobbit will be of the same quality.
Although I doubt I will like it as much because The Hobbit is REALLY written for children and I am not a fan of that style. ^^"

Ven, you just haven't read Suzerain's reactions to the LotR movies. If I remember right it's over in his "All things Tolkien" thread.. go look and you'll probably see why he feels this way ;)

Will do that.
Because I wonder who might dislike the most perfect adaptions in the history of movies! XD

It's called an opinion. And mine is so far from yours, there probably isn't much point in us even discussing it. I honestly think they completely fail as adaptations and should be called "Peter Jackson's: The Lord of the Rings, (loosely) inspired by the work of J.R.R. Tolkien".

I agree with most of Eldorion's points here, if you want a run-down of the problems I have with it, though I don't consider myself a purist. I just feel like the story Jackson told is inferior in almost every way to the story Tolkien told.

If he'd told a better story than Tolkien, I wouldn't complain.

Edit:

I just think there is no way to get the book into a movie without those changes.
It wouldn't work, no matter WHO tried it.

I wouldn't want to watch a 20 hour movie, personally.
That's what the book is for. Books and movies are just SO different that you can never compare them without being disappointed.

I think there would have been no way to make it better without making it boring as a movie.
Probably because I like slow and descriptive books but I would fall asleep if a movie was like that.

But to each their own. *shrug*

I just hope The Hobbit is better than the book. Because the style of the book was so childish, I just don't like it at all. :<