Current mood:	hopeful
Current music:	i want you (she's so heavy)
Entry tags:	movie, rl, the hobbit

the hobbit news , social awkwardness, and a ivy league school

Imagine how excited I saw to get this week's Entertainment Weekly, with the title "Return of the Rings?" sprawled across the top. It's a good article with summation of the Hobbit drama leading up to the present, where things are starting to look up for the project. Let's cross our fingers!

Sean Astin recently spoke to MTV Movies Blog about The Hobbit, stating "'I’ve said since before we started making the movies and have never wavered for a second that ‘The Hobbit’ would get made,' Sean Astin — who portrayed Samwise Gamgee — insisted, while out promoting his new film, “The Final Season.” 'The fanbase wants it. There’s too much money to be made doing it. It seems like maybe the time is now.'" But even if the Shire is saved, it won’t be saved for Sam, who isn’t born until 2980 T.A. (1380 by the Shire reckoning), 39 years AFTER Bilbo leaves Bag End with Gandalf in search of Dwarf treasure.

“But obviously Peter is so creative that he can find a way to connect that character if he wanted to,” Sean said, adding to an echoing chorus of “LOTR” stars like Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom who say they would be game for anything Jackson came up with. “[And] he knows that anytime, anywhere, he could just make a phone call or send an email and I’d get on a plane and go anywhere he wanted me to.”

One way Jackson COULD include Sam in another story, of course, would be to make a long rumored second film, one that connected the events of “The Hobbit” with the beginning of “Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.” But even if he did that, it wouldn’t leave much room for Astin.

“It would bum me out is if somebody else played Samwise,” he said. “[But] I suppose he could hire a little kid to play Samwise because he’s the son of Hamfast Gamgee and Hamfast [is approximately] the age of Bilbo.”

Or maybe Astin himself could play the Old Gaffer in a bit of cross-generational casting?

“No, I haven’t [talked to Peter about doing a cameo in ‘The Hobbit’ but] it’ll be interesting to see what he does,” Astin enthused. “He’s the master.”

I went to an Office party last night; great episode, weirdest atmosphere ever. No one talked to Nina and me. I don't plan on repeating the experience any time soon.

Same goes for Across the Universe - I had fun hanging out with Trisha, but man was I glad I had low expectations for the film. There were a few good sequences - the "I Want You So Bad" recruitment one springs to mind - but it was too riddled with cliches and lacking in plot to be taken seriously. If you compare this with Moulin Rouge, I will punch you in the face.

AH SAT TOMORROW. BUT ALSO PRINCETON WHICH IS AWESOMEPANTS.