Last month The Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro said that they were “very close to saying one name”, having narrowed down the search for Bilbo Baggins from 4 possible actors, and that he expected to make an announcement in the next few weeks. Well it’s been more than a month now and we are still none the wiser. However, over the past few days casting speculation has been flying around the internet suggesting that either Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), James McAvoy (Wanted) or David Tennant (Doctor Who) will land the role and that an announcement will be made at the San Diego Comic Con next week.

When I read the names of the ‘possible candidates’ I immediately ruled out Radcliffe. The Hobbit will start filming next March and Mr. Potter has a franchise he needs to finish. It won’t work. Thankfully Peter Jackson has squashed these rumors as he revealed to Empire that no announcement will be made next week, but they are starting to think about casting:

“No, we won’t be announcing Bilbo for a little while,” he said when we asked about a Comic-Con announcement. “We’re starting to think about casting, but we’re knee-deep in the script right now. And when we do go to actors, they’re probably going to ask to see a script, so we’re powering ahead with getting the first draft done.”

So we have Guillermo del Toro saying they have narrowed the search down to one actor and we will know within weeks, and then we have Peter Jackson saying that they were just starting to think about casting. It appears we have conflicting reports here. Whatever the case is i’m sure they know what they are doing and they will make an announcement when they are ready.

Doctor Who is probably Britain’s biggest TV show (apart from those Simon Cowell makes) and is broadcast weekly in 42 countries around the world, so with such a large fan base it wouldn’t be shock to learn that BBC Film are quietly working on a movie version of the show. Unlike Lost and other shows that could potentially spawn a movie, Doctor Who episodes have no strict links between them, and the TV specials being shown throughout this year prove that the Doctor can appear just about anywhere, which makes a movie version more viable.

Buried at the bottom of a Doctor Who related BBC article we get:

David Tennant will firstly appear in three specials, starting with The Waters of Mars in November.

Meanwhile, Doctor Who may be heading for the big screen after a spokeswoman for BBC Films confirmed that “a script is in development”.

BBC entertainment correspondent Lizo Mzimba said there were no guarantees a film would be made and that, if the project went into full production, a release would be a long time away.

So if it eventually happens David Tennant probably won’t be the Doctor, instead it may be Matt Smith who will take over the role in 2010.

Steven Moffat, who co-wrote The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn for Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, will be taking over Russell T Davies’ job as head writer and executive produce for future series, so he would be a great candidate to write the script for the movie.