Martin Freeman has already made one fanboy dream come true. The actor brought a much better version of Arthur Dent to life in the recent Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy adaptation. Now Internet scuttlebutt has the actor bringing another fan-favorite role to life, but the question is: do we really want him to?
MTV Movie Blog reportedly talked to Freeman about recent rumors that his name is being tossed around to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, should the problem-plagued adaptation ever get made. It seems that, while rumors continue to fly about Ian McKellen reprising his role as Gandalf and Viggo Mortensen making an appearance (even though LotRcanon never puts Aragorn around in the time of The Hobbit), the one name that isn’t being rumored to put in an appearance in the prequel story is Ian Holm, who played an older Bilbo in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies.
MTV attempts to rationalize the rumored change to Freeman, stating While wizards and elves and part elf-men all age slowly (or not at all), hobbits get old quick, and we can’t imagine a 51-year-old Bilbo played by the same actor who brought him to life on his eleventy-first birthday. Apparently they forget Holm played a younger version of Bilbo in one of the scenes showing the history of the ring and Gollum’s origins. Loss of geek-cred for MTV.
Thankfully, their interview with Freeman pretty much shows all the talk is just that – talk. Freeman says he’s talked to Jackson, but not about The Hobbit. Instead the actor was turned down for a part in Jackson’s next picture, The Lovely Bones. He also seems confused over hobbits, goblins, and trolls. Is this really the person we want taking on the mantle of Bilbo Baggins? I think not.
No, I for one want Ian Holm back. It would seem unnatural for anyone but Holm to play the role. Of course, at this point I’m still skeptical about the movie happening at all. There’s lots of talk being tossed around, but still no solutions seem to be happening in the battle for the rights to make the movie (or distribute it). Until that’s solved, we can say anyone from Freeman to Jorge Garcia is being considered to play Bilbo, but nothing’s really happening.
