A round-up of The Hobbit rumours, including fresh reports that suggest the movie’s ending could be changed from that of its source novel...
Following the reports last Thursday that Martin Freeman may be set to smoke the pipe of Bilbo Baggins after all, more news has arrived about The Hobbit courtesy of The One Ring.
Reporting on the contents of what are said to be genuine casting and production notes for The Hobbit, the site has revealed that Freeman was the first choice for the role of Bilbo, and has been so since last year.
According to The One Ring's sources, The Hobbit could go into production as early as next January, if the negotiations with Freeman are successful, with shooting expected to last about a year.
What's most interesting about these latest details, however, is a hint in The Hobbit's production notes that the ending of the movie could be rather different from the conclusion in Tolkien's source novel. "Although[...] he doesn't have huge courage he does become, particularly in the last battle, very brave," the notes reportedly state.
Now, if the "last battle" is, indeed, The Battle of Five Armies, readers of the original novel will know that, in that spectacular final confrontation, Bilbo Baggins played no part, having been knocked unconscious before it had even begun. If the sentence is taken at face value, the movie adaptation of The Hobbit could have a rather different conclusion, with Bilbo playing a far more active role in its climactic battle.
Like everything about The Hobbit's production, this is all decidedly up in the air and could well change in the run-up to the film's shoot in January. Nevertheless, it's an interesting piece of news, and likely to cause controversy among dedicated fans of Tolkien's novel.