According to /Film Ian McKellen recently attended an all-night showing of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and gave the crowd an update on The Hobbit.
Ian McKellen was present in person to intro the screenings, and while he only spoke for a very short time, he managed to get the crowd into something of a frenzy. Not only did he confirm that he’ll be coming back as Gandalf, and is expecting to start work on set in March of next year, he also dropped a bit of a casting bombshell. According to McKellen, the starring role of Bilbo Baggins has been successfully cast already. Not only that, but he knows who has the role and he’s sure that the fans will be very, very pleased. McKellen also revealed that he is expecting his own personal copy of “the script” within the next fortnight.
Last month Peter Jackson said that they won’t be revealing who’ll be playing Bilbo Beggins “for a little while” as they were still finishing the script. If what Ian McKellen says is correct they must have finished the first draft of the script and are getting the casting under way. Hopefully they’ll start letting us know who they’ve chosen soon!
