17 responses so far ↓

• 1 korg20000bc // Mar 27, 2008 at 6:14 pm

  If he does I hope he’s a crankier Gandalf the Grey.

  Del Toro is directing. I’ve read that he wants Ron Pearlman in the movie. I don’t know who as though.

• 2 reyhan // Mar 27, 2008 at 11:35 pm

  Voice of Smaug?

  At 6′ 2″, I don’t think he’s going to play a dwarf. And he does do a lot of voiceovers

  Did you know that del Toro was adapting a Lovecraft story, At the Mountains of Madness and wants Perlman to play Larson? And that Perlman does the voice of Firelord Sozin in Avatar, the Last Airbender?

• 3 Travis Prinzi // Mar 27, 2008 at 11:38 pm

  I’m really, really looking forward to del Toro’s take on At the Mountains of Madness.

• 4 Rollin // Mar 28, 2008 at 9:52 am

  Could they bring the Voice of Smaug from the animated movie Richard Boone. He passed away, but could they splice the voice in instead of a current actor. He has that Guttural sound in his voice that you would figure a dragon would have.

• 5 revgeorge // Mar 28, 2008 at 10:19 am

  My thoughts exactly, Rollin! I loved Richard Boone as Smaug’s voice! The only actor nowadays who I think could pull it off like Boone did is James Gammon.

• 6 reyhan // Mar 28, 2008 at 10:59 pm

  TheOneRing posted a lot of suggestions as to who could most effectively voice Smaug.

  They vetoed James Earl Jones, who would have been one of my top three choices, saying Smaug should not sound like Darth Vader. And similarly discarded Sean Connery, Jeremy Irons and Liam Neeson for already having voiced familiar characters on film. They suggested quite a few names, some of which were quite unexpected (George Clooney?) and some of which fit (Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, Patrick Stewart). But the one I liked the best is Vin Diesel, who has enough of that gravelly rumble to carry it off, I think.

• 7 Travis Prinzi // Mar 28, 2008 at 11:22 pm

  I think for Smaug, they need to go with new talent. Liam Neeson drove me crazy as Aslan, because I could tell it was Liam Neeson.

  Find some undiscovered voice, I’d say.

• 8 korg20000bc // Mar 29, 2008 at 5:32 pm

  Patrick Stewart as Smaug- “You will become one with the Smorg.”
  James Earl Jones as Smaug- “I find your lack of beard disturbing.”
  Sean Connery as Smaug- “He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the Smaug!”
  Liam Neeson as Smaug- “I get skewed in the belly?!!!”

• 9 Eeyore // Mar 30, 2008 at 1:28 am

  My husband still talks about Richard Boone as Smaug, and I think that’s the reason he remembers that version as being better than I thought it was. I don’t remember now what I didn’t like about it, but I do remember thinking Boone was a great choice. Who else has that sort of voice and is still around? Personally, I love listening to Alan Rickman and after hearing him read “Return of the Native”, it’s evident that he’s even more versatile than he’s given credit for. Anytime I forget it’s actually Rickman means that he is totally in whatever character he is voicing.

  But then who was the guy that was in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (ugh, no, not Costner), but the one who played the Sheriff’s cousin? He has a raspy sort of voice that would sound very dragonish.

  Pat

• 10 revgeorge // Mar 30, 2008 at 9:47 am

  Pat,

  If there was anything redeemable about the evil Costner remake of Robin Hood, it was Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham. He was fantastic.

  But Costner, uggh!! Morgan Freeman, horribly miscast & underused. And don’t even get me started about the lady who played Maid Marion.

• 11 revgeorge // Mar 30, 2008 at 9:56 am

  I was just reminded of Brian Blessed. He has a nice booming voice, but maybe he’s a little too exuberant to play a dragon.

• 12 reyhan // Mar 30, 2008 at 11:39 am

  Pat,

  You probably mean Michael Wincott, who played Guy of Gisborne in RH:PoT . According to the IMDb, his trademark is his “deeply rasping voice”. Between acting jobs, he does voiceovers for videogames (Halo) and animated movies (Treasure Planet).

  Sounds like just what’s needed. Good call.

• 13 Eeyore // Mar 30, 2008 at 11:55 am

  That’s the one. I just looked him up and he’s played other characters that are rather sinister. Yes, he was also in The Three Muskateers as Rochefort, and in The Count of Monte Cristo–all similarly nasty characters.

  Pat

• 14 Travis Prinzi // Mar 30, 2008 at 3:00 pm

  I read that the director of Prince of Thieves was forced to cut large portions of the film featuring the Sheriff, because Rickman was basically stealing the show from Costner.

• 15 reyhan // Mar 30, 2008 at 4:02 pm

  Says something for Radcliffe, then, that he’s able to hold his own in their scenes together. Maybe it’s the age thing, or maybe Rickman’s being generous, but he doesn’t dominate the scenes.

• 16 Eeyore // Mar 30, 2008 at 4:11 pm

  True, but if you watch the extended version released later, they added back over 10 minutes, most of which was scenes with Rickman. There were a couple of scenes that actually make the story of the Sheriff make more sense–not to mention they are great. It’s probably the only reason I bought the movie and watch it now and then. Those are very often scenes that Rickman has with Geraldine McEwan, and she’s great fun to watch. The two of them were in Barchester Chronicles back in the early 80s, as adversaries–they work well together.

  Pat

• 17 Shane Deal // Apr 3, 2008 at 1:36 am

  I can’t really imagine anyone else as Gandalf now.

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