Two days until The Hobbit premieres in theatres. Right now people watch their extended editions of The Lord Of The Rings, while critics lament this latest film as ‘too long’. All the clips, interviews, and red carpet events basically resembles the time-honoured words, “People start your engines.” Me? I take a different track to prepping for this event. In preparation for The Hobbit, I began watching previous work involving cast members on Netflix.
Richard Amitage
This one is pretty easy. I have Robin Hood and North and South on DVD, but loaned out to different people. Thank you Netflix for having both, plus series 7, 8, and 9 of MI-5/Spooks. He mentioned in interviews all his roles seemed to prepare him as Thorin Oakenshield. As John Thorton in North and South, he’s gruff and unwelcoming during our fist glimpse of the character. (Plus mouth-watering sexy.)
Aidan Turner
Before he turned into a ‘hot dwarf’ he was a ‘hot vampire’. (Rpatz has nothing on this guy.) Watch the first three seasons of Being Human either for the first time or the umpteenth time. Mitchel started this whole quest to live as humans in Bristol, and later on Barry, Wales. To watch him hang on before stumbling proved both heart-breaking and gripping to watch. Fans shot their fists at Peter Jackson for taking Turner away, but Toby Whithouse once said he knew the cast assembled would move on to bigger and better things.
James Nesbitt
Forget Bilbo, Nesbitt really is the burglar of the group. From the clips I saw he will steal parts of the movie. Netflix has The Way starring Martin Sheen, directed by his son Emilio Estevez. Nesbitt plays an Irish travel writer with a block, but not big enough for his mouth. While he annoys Sheen’s character, he later grows on him, even turning sombre as the real reason for the pilgrimage becomes clear. I haven’t watched Jekyll or Five Minutes in Heaven. The Winnipeg Public library does have three seasons of Cold Feet, a series he’s mostly known for over in England.
Last but not least…
Martin Freeman
Netflix has the UK edition of The Office, Freeman’s calling card among connoisseurs of Brit TV. However, my Hobbit prep comes in the form of Sherlock. In John Watson we now get glimpses of Bilbo Baggins, probably the same glimpses that kept Peter Jackson up at 4 am, faced with the prospect of not casting his first choice. We get a man who wants stability, but deep down knows it’s peace time driving his hand to shake not war. John willingly follows Sherlock while at the same time acts as his compass to keep the consulting detective from crossing the line Moriarty must have crossed a long time ago. You need an actor who can hold his own, to not deteriorate into just a side kick.
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