Following Peter Jackson and Ian McKellen, it is now Elijah Wood who gets his say on the current upheaval surrounding the making of The Hobbit. The actor who portrayed Frodo in The Lord of the Rings trilogy told MyMovies.net that (Rings director) Jackson not returning to direct the prequel would be a tragedy: “I think it’s ultimately quite foolish for New Line to move forward assuming they can create an equally wonderful film without Peter… and I think for that for fans that’s tragic.” More here.

Empire also caught up with Wood, who was even more candid in his comments to them: “I can’t imagine any of the original actors would want to join it… how can you imagine a prequel that didn’t look the same, and didn’t have the same continuity after all that work?” More here.

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Posted in Movies, The Hobbit / LOTR •

The IMDB is has recently added French composer Alexandre Desplat to the crew on board His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass. Since entries to the IMDB can be openly submitted by readers, there is a substantial amount of uncertainty attached to this news. However, there have been absolutely no rumours (which pranksters could have based a false submission on) suggesting this match prior to the updating of that crew list, so it is possible that the source of the news is New Line itself, and Desplat really will compose the music to Chris Weitz’s upcoming adaptation of the first of Philip Pullman’s three His Dark Materials novels.

Alexandre Desplat has scored over one hundred movies, mostly French ones at the beginning of his career, but his recent work includes more widely known films such as Casanova, Syriana, Firewall, The Queen and the upcoming The Painted Veil and Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium.

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Posted in Movies •

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling recently won a literary prize with Harry and the Half-Blood Prince being voted the best Scottish children’s book. While she was unable to attend the awards ceremony, she passed along a message of thanks in which she explained her abscence was due to being busy writing the seventh and final book in the series:

“Thank you so much for this award. I’m sure any writer will agree that it’s always reassuring to receive recognition for your work, but it’s particularly meaningful when the decision has been made by the readers themselves. To them, I’m enormously grateful and delighted that Harry Potter continues to give so much pleasure. [...] I’m sorry I am unable to receive this award in person today, but I currently have my head down writing the final book, which is coming along nicely.”

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Posted in Books & Comics, Harry Potter •

According to the Hollywood Reporter, HBO is developing a one-hour television series based on the Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon comic book Preacher. Mark Steven Johnson who wrote Daredevil and Ghost Rider is penning the pilot episode with Howard Deutch attached to direct. Johnson and Deutch will also take up executive produce duties along with Michael De Luca, George Agusto, Chris Bender and JC Spink.

Preacher tells the story of Jesse Custer, a down-and-out preacher in the small Texas town of Annville who is accidentally possessed by a supernatural creature named ‘Genesis’ in an incident which kills his entire congregation and flattens his church. Custer, driven by a strong sense of right and wrong, goes on a journey across the United States attempting to (literally) find God, who abandoned Heaven the moment Genesis was born. He also begins to discover the truth about his new powers, which allow him to command the obedience of those who hear his words. He is joined by his old girlfriend Tulip O’Hare, as well as a hard-drinking Irish vampire named Cassidy.

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Posted in Television •