The Star Wars franchise returns this week as Star Wars: The Clone Wars is released on most parts of the planet. However, there will be no Hayden Christensen or Ewan McGregor. No Natalie Portman or Frank Oz. In fact, the only actors returning to voice their characters are Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu), Christopher Lee (Count Dooku), and Anthony Daniels (C-3P0).

Why is this?

MTV asked George Lucas that very question:

“When we decided to do the feature, we went back to the actors and said, ‘Look, we’re doing a feature. Would you like to do the voice? Could you come in a month?’ Some of them were all over the world. It was hard to get all the actors that would be off on set,” Lucas told reporters at a press conference last week. “You need people available every week. [Also] you can’t really afford multi-million dollar actors to do a television series. Those guys make more during their coffee break.”

But the bottom line for why most of the actors aren’t returning to voice the characters they made famous? Because George Lucas doesn’t need them, Lucas himself said to reporters.

“It used to be in animation you just had [unknown] actors do the parts. The idea of hiring a really good actor – Tom Hanks [for instance] – was a really revolutionary idea,” Lucas said. “Partly they did it because they were great actors, partly they did it cause they wanted to use them for publicity. To be very honest with you, I don’t really think I need to hire a big movie star to publicize my movie. I don’t need Angelina Jolie here. That’s what it comes down to in the end. They have two days in the studio and then they have like two weeks doing press. They are mainly paid for the press stuff.”

He has a point. Although it would have been great to have everyone back to voice an animated version of their characters, it is not how the world works. In Hollywood anyway.

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…

He may be 86 years old but he still has six movies on the way and could be adding another one (or two). Christopher Lee spoke to Empire about Saruman returning for The Hobbit prequels. Although Saruman doesnt appear in the book, there is the second film which Del Toro and Jackson will be writing to bridge the gap between The Hobbit and the first Lord of the Rings movie.

“I’ve read the books time and again,” said the 86-year-old. “Originally Saruman The White and the rest of the wizards, or the Istari as they call them, were immortal. There were five of them, two of them never appear, I know their names but they never appear, and the only three that are mentioned are Saruman The White, Gandalf The Grey and Radagast The Brown who you never see – so basically it’s two wizards.

“They lived for thousands of years and they were sent to the earth and they are virtually immortal. When it all started, Saruman was the noblest, the finest, the bravest, the most dependable and reliable of them all, he was number one. But somewhere, somehow, and it was never actually explained, he turns and it’s probably the Palantír (the wizard’s crystal ball thingy) that makes Saruman realise that if Sauron can do this, why can’t I do it and Saruman wants to become The Lord Of The Rings himself.”

“I’d be interested in seeing how that transition from good to evil occurred and, yes, of course I would return to the role if I was asked.”

You can tell Lee has read the trilogy every year for the past five decades can’t you?

I suppose it would be quite cool to see Saruman’s decent into darkness. What do you think?

The UK Royal Mail are celebrating 50 years of Hammer Horror films with three new stamps featuring original cinema posters of Dracula, The Mummy and The Curse of Frankenstein, which all stared Christopher Lee.

Lee will make history next month by being among the first living non-royals to be portrayed on a British stamp, breaking an 80 year old tradition. The Queen has personally approved the designs, and the British public will be able to get licking them in June.

Larger versions can be seen below!

Read more…