Bret McKenzie could be going from being Figwit in the Lord of the Rings to a big-screen presence in The Hobbit.
The Dominion Post can reveal that Sir Peter Jackson is trying to tempt the Flight of the Conchords co-star to take a role in the 3-D Hobbit films now being shot in Wellington.
It would spell a remarkable turnaround for McKenzie, who had a three-second spot as a pouting elf in the first Rings film.
A fan saw him on screen, as Frodo was frantically trying to deliver the ring to Mordor, and thought. "Frodo is great ... who is that?" And from that, the acronym Figwit was born.
It spawned the tongue-in-cheek figwitlives.net website in honour of the spunky elf – McKenzie was listed as one of Who magazine's 100 sexiest people in 2008 – and an hour-long documentary called Frodo is Great ... Who is That?!!
The final Rings instalment The Return of the King also saw the return of McKenzie, as an elf escort to Liv Tyler. He got one line.
He and fellow Conchords star Jemaine Clement later recorded the parody song Frodo, Don't Wear the Ring, which featured on their hit TV series and included the lines, "Frodo, don't wear the ring/ The magical bling bling/ You'll never be the lord of the rings".
McKenzie was at Wednesday night's opening of Miramar's new Roxy theatre along with Jackson and Hobbit cast members Martin Freeman, Sir Ian McKellen, James Nesbitt and Adam Brown.
Hobbit spokeswoman Melissa Booth did not reply to questions about McKenzie and his role in the film.
Figwit is to Jackson's The Lord of the Rings what the Pederast Priest is to Conan the Barbarian: a background character who does next to nothing, but manages to be one of those characters everyone remembers.
I'm more of a Harad Leader 2 guy, the LotR equivalent of Mahmud, but I digress.
So to have Figwit actually return for The Hobbit encapsulates everything I love and loath about the Jackson films: a bishie elf beloved by fangirls everywhere who gets more screen-time than Beregond, Bergil, Radagast, Glorfindel, Ghân-buri-Ghân, Imrahil, Beechbone, Elladan, Elrohir, Erkenbrand, Gildor, Ioreth, and other Tolkien characters who got shunted for Fralippa's fan-fiction. Gah.
I really need to find out who Mahmud is. Perhaps the Conan Completist crowd will know...
??? I didn't remember him until I watched the clip. Very forgetable part where I'm coming from.
ReplyDeleteHow could you forget him? He's the dude that said "Lady Arwen, we cannot delay! My lady!" - truly sparkling dialogue that rivals, nay, exceeds that of Tolkien himself!
ReplyDelete(Seriously, I remember the guy mostly because the Arwen romance aspect irritated me so much that it's burned into my brain. ESPECIALLY the part preceding this, where Arwen has a vision of Eldarion... who apparently doesn't have sisters in Jackson's account.)
Harad Leader 2 looks like the Syrian gladiator from "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena".
ReplyDeleteAs for Figwit...*low mutters of indignation* including "Damn Frallippa mucking around with my Tolkien."