We learn today that Christoper Lee will not be in the pair of films preceding the LOTR trilogy, save for maybe some voice work! We get the following scoop from our friends at cinematical:
Christopher Lee attended the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival this week, and our friends from RushBlogg, Karsten and Eirik, were on hand to talk to him. Of all the attendees, Meinich was the only one who asked Lee about his involvement in The Hobbit. Lee’s answer came as quite a surprise — first, he’s adamant that he won’t be appearing in The Hobbit, because as we all know, Saruman isn’t in the book. This comes as no surprise — Lee is a Tolkien purist (thank goodness!) and he won’t allow himself to be shoehorned in, even if Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro were interested in doing so.
That doesn’t mean Lee isn’t interested in being in The Hobbit at all, however! He’ll appear in the film as long as he can stay in London, and there’s a character he’s quite keen to play. Or rather, voice. Someone very large, with a penchant for gold…
Lee loves Tolkien’s universe and it’s no surprise to me that he considers himself a purist and is sticking to his principles. Lee lamented the cutting of Saruman’s scenes from the LOTR trilogy and I remember lamenting for him, because you could feel the disappointment in his voice; I think he would live in Middle Earth, given the opportunity.
It is interesting that he is making known the desire to voice Smaug the Dragon. I for one would be all for him voicing the beast. International friends – would you be game for Lee to voice Smaug, or would you prefer another?
