Up until this point I have just assumed all of the original cast from the Lord of the Rings trilogy would return for The Hobbit, seeing as though they all had a wonderful time making it and in interviews most of them have been rather excited. However…
Christopher Lee attended the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival this week, and our friends from RushBlogg, Karsten and Eirik, were on hand to talk to him. Of all the attendees, Meinich was the only one who asked Lee about his involvement in The Hobbit. Lee’s answer came as quite a surprise — first, he’s adamant that he won’t be appearing in The Hobbit, because as we all know, Saruman isn’t in the book. This comes as no surprise — Lee is a Tolkien purist (thank goodness!) and he won’t allow himself to be shoehorned in, even if Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro were interested in doing so.
Lee isn’t interested in filming in New Zealand again because it is simply too far away, for too long of a time. You can hear the tiredness in his voice — and perhaps a bit of regret too.
That doesn’t mean Lee isn’t interested in being in The Hobbit at all, however! He’ll appear in the film as long as he can stay in London, and there’s a character he’s quite keen to play. Or rather, voice. Someone very large, with a penchant for gold…
