Martin Freeman

This post has been corrected. See the note below for details. “The Avengers,” “Dark Knight Rises” and Martin Freeman are among the films and performers nominated for the MTV Movie Awards. What’s that? You thought Hollywood’s awards season was over? Well, it’s just getting started for fan-favorite movies that rarely have a shot at the shiny hardware for best-movie Oscars and Golden Globes. The MTV Movie Awards will be announced April 14 after you —  yes, you! — get to vote in the online popularity contest. The coveted Golden Popcorn statuette will be handed out in such offbeat categories as best kiss, best shirtless moment and best fight, in addition to more traditional categories such as breakthrough performance and movie of the year. James Bond jilted: Mendes rejects “Skyfall” follow-up Freeman is nominated for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” in a […]

A new poster for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” puts the spotlight on Thorin Oakenshield and his company of dwarves. In the J.R.R. Tolkien book, hobbit Bilbo Baggins is enlisted by wizard Gandalf to join 13 dwarves on their journey to reclaim their ancestors’ gold from the greedy and terrible dragon Smaug. The new poster follows last week’s reveal of a poster featuring Baggins (Martin Freeman) wielding his sword Sting (above, right). Also released last week was a new trailer that offered a more lighthearted sense of the film and revealed glimpses of several Middle-earth characters, including Radagast the Brown. PHOTOS: Meet the 13 dwarves from “The Hobbit” In addition to Freeman, the film stars Richard Armitage as dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield as well as “Lord of the Rings” returnees Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, […]

Peter Jackson unveiled more than 12 minutes of footage from “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” during his Comic-Con panel Saturday, giving fans a glimpse of Martin Freeman’s performance as Bilbo Baggins, a new female character not from the J.R.R. Tolkien universe and some scenes with familiar characters Gandalf, Gollum and Galadriel. Jackson, who directed “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy before taking on Tolkien’s smaller adventure, was joined on the panel by cowriter Philippa Boyens, Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins), Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Andy Serkis (second unit director and, of course, Gollum), Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield) and surprise guest Elijah Wood, who played Frodo Baggins in the trilogy and did “a bit of work” for “The Hobbit.” The panel was the capstone of the Hall H lineup this year. Thousands of fans — more than a few in Middle-earth garb […]

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 […]