The Morning Roundup: McKellen Is Gandalf (Again), New Hulk Trailer, More Casting News
Written by: Tony Lazlo, CC2K Staff Writer
In the most obvious bit of news this year, The Hobbit gains its first official cast member. We also have some potentially fascinating science news and other casting deals.
It's officially official: Ian McKellen will reprise his role as Gandalf in Guillermo Del Toro's The Hobbit and presumably the interstitial movie that will go with it.
But who will play the other major new characters in The Hobbit? Courtesy of our own Jon Lipman comes this suggested cast list:
Voice of Smaug: James Earl Jones
Thorin: Brian Blessed
Fallen King of Wood Elves: Jeremy Irons
Bard the Bowman: Aaron Douglas
Black Arrow: Laurence Olivier (just kidding)
OK, this one isn't entertainment news, but this guy got the tip of his finger chopped off, right? And a buddy gave him some experimental "cellular matrix" powder – and according to the BBC, his finger FUCKING GREW BACK. In the event this isn't a hoax, it's an awesome scientific advance.
Will Iron Man be too good to be a hit?
Shakespeare Manga! And in other Shakespeare news, there's a new film version of The Winter's Tale on the way, starring Dougray Scott and Derek Jacobi.
There's a new trailer for The Incredible Hulk at Apple.com, and we've got a bunch of new pics.
Sony has unveiled the poster and trailer for the thriller The Take.
Javier Bardem has bowed out of Rob Marshall's musical Nine.
Teresa Palmer has joined the cast of Transformers 2.
Gary Sinise will narrate the Discovery Channel series NASA.
Good grief: magician David Blaine held his breath for more than 17 minutes on Oprah.
Stage: A straight play version of Kiss of the Spider Woman is headed for Broadway. Also, Xanadu will continue its run.
Two of L.A.'s best music clubs are headed for new locations.
AICN has a new clip from The Foot Fist Way.
Hey, it's a bunch of pics from the Iron Man premiere.
IESB also has an 11-minute featurette on the new Indiana Jones movie.
Nice: Warner Bros. gave a fan a 35mm print of the new trailer for The Dark Knight at a screening, and the fan found that the Joker had defaced the print. He put it online: