It seems like two Babylon 5 actors are vying for the role of Aragorn. Robin Atkins-Down and Jason Carter, and the later seems to be closer than the former. Atkins-Down, who played Morann. Carter playes Marcus Cole.
Category: Rumours Spy News
Tom Baker, the actor who became the most recognised of the eight incarnations of “Doctor Who”, might be making a comeback. The Doctor Who Newspage reports that Baker was apparently screen tested for the part of Gandalf in the upcoming “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, sometime in March. While Baker is best known in the sci-fi field, he has worked in the ‘sorcery fantasy’ genre before – most notably a major part in the TV adaption of “The Silver Chair”, the sixth book in CS Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” series. No doubt there’ll be some in-joke about a TARDIS worked into the story. Thanks to ‘Calli’ & ‘GMW’.
What’s a few hours waiting in the cold open foyer of the School of Dance and Drama when you have a chance of becoming an extra in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings? No problem at all for Liz Dengate-Thrush, her daughter Phoebe and fellow hopeful Mary Knight, each warmly wrapped up against yesterday’s cold weather.
They were among several hundred hopefuls, some prepared to wait outside in the rain, on the off-chance of being snapped up as hobbits, trolls, orcs & “anything”, Mrs Dengate-Thrush and Phoebe said. The Dengate-Thrushes wiled away the hours swotting up on the hobbit tale. Other hopefuls relied on thermoses and conversation with friends. Ms. Knight said friends had told her to audition as ‘she fit the criteria’ Lord of the Rings publicist Sian Clement said about 500 people had passed through the audition process on Saturday and more were expected to have done so by the end of yesterday (Sunday) “we’re very happy, we’ve had a good cross-section, including very tall women and very short women,” Ms. Clement said.
They would obviously fall short of the 15,000 requirement, but ‘we can use some on more than one occasion”.
She also hinted that clever make-up made facial ‘character’ unnecessary. None of the extras would have a speaking part.
The main role-players have yet to be announced, and the potential extras will have to be patient – all are being told they will be called “if we want to hire you”.
Liz Berry and Kylee Southon saw the long and the short of it yeasterday. The Nelson pair were two of the more then 500 hopefuls who turned up to Wellington’s National Dance and Drama Centre in a bid to become extras in film director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.
And they reckoned they were just what the production company was looking for. “I’m 4ft and that’s with shoes on,” laughed 21-year-old, Southon. “I could be just what they’re looking for if they’re after an elf or a hobbit.” Berry, an avid horse rider who stands 60cm taller then her friend, is keen to play a giant if she is successful.
Berry, who modeled at the 1996 Smokefree Fashion Award, confessed to not having read The Hobbit but was confident of proving herself on horseback with a sword. “I decided to give it a go for the fun of it, really, but I also like the idea of being in a film.”
The friends caught the 4.30 ferry from Picton to join the Queue for casting. They filled out forms asking for everything from head size to bra size.
They then drew an outline of their feet and were photographed Publicist Sian Clement said the production company was looking for 15,000 extras for the $264m adaptation of the JRR Tolkien book. Filming is due to start in New Zealand later this year.
“We’ll be looking over the applications over the next few weeks and deciding who’s suitable.