Benedict Cumberbatch plays Smaug
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug screenplay writers, Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, have revealed that the character they most enjoyed writing for was Smaug himself! This wasn’t however, an easy task. The dragon, along with Bard the Bowman, proved the trickiest of characters to adapt from the book to the film.
Fran told Dark Horizons that Smaug is a ‘beautiful character to be given to adapt to a screenplay,’ while Philippa called him ‘Wonderful. A true psychopath.’
Philippa went on to say that, once they started working with Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Smaug, they adjusted the dialogue because ‘ he has done some extraordinary stuff. We won’t tell you what it is, but I’ve never seen an actor do that before… I didn’t think it was something that someone could do.’
Peter Jackson also had something to say about Smaug. He said, ‘Smaug has to be perfect for the story that we are telling, and everything that he needs to do in The Hobbit, be absolutely terrifying, be able to destroy a city, be able to have sly conversations with Bilbo, all of that we’re building into the design of the character and the way that he looks. So hopefully we’re building a good Smaug for The Hobbit.’
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is in cinemas from 13 December, 2013.
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