Tag: Martin Freeman

No major release of 2012 arrives at theaters with more baggage or battle scars than “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” a title that became a sort of epic inside joke for the cast and his crew, many of whom worked on “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy that made movie history a decade ago. “I think fate has actually been kind to us,” director Peter Jackson said last summer, although he didn’t sound convinced by his own words. “Yes, I think fate was kind but I don’t know that we knew that along the way.” That’s how most quests go, of course, but the journey to adapt J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth saga into a lavish two-part movie adventure was especially stormy right from the beginning. Roadblocks included an ugly legal battle with the author’s heirs, a two-year delay that came with ...

How good is Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins? Oscar-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson says there is “simply nobody else” who could star in ”The Hobbit” epic that will be told over two films, the first reaching theaters in December 2012 and the second in December 2013. “He is fantastic and there is simply nobody else for the job,” Jackson said during a recent break from the production in New Zealand and a whirlwind trip to Southern California. “We couldn’t find anyone who was better than him. He is simply fantastic.” The 39-year-old Freeman, known to moviegoers for roles in “Love Actually” and “The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” was one of several actors who auditioned for the chance to portray Baggins, the beloved character whose odyssey gives Jackson a chance to return to Middle-earth after his massive “Lord of the Rings” success. (In that trilogy, the older ...