by Joe Utichi on rottentomatoes.com

Sir Ian McKellen is spending the week at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. RT sat down with McKellen to discuss the award and his work. Of course, as Guillermo del Toro readies to direct ‘The Hobbit’ we couldn’t help but look to the future and find out how things were going with the project.
In fact it was McKellen who raised the wizard’s name before we asked, rather controversially declaring to RT, “I don’t want to play Gandalf again.”

But before a million Rings fans cry out in terror at the thought of another thesp stepping into the role, McKellen was actually discussing the risk of typecasting the wake of a big success. “If you play a part that gets an awful lot of attention,” he explained, “forever after you’re being asked by directors to play the same part in their movie. But I played the best wizard, and I’m happy to revisit him, which I shall do in The Hobbit with Guillermo del Toro.”

Not only will ‘The Hobbit’ afford McKellen another chance to find his feet with one of literature’s greatest wizards, but the film will also allow him to return to the earlier incarnation of the character, Gandalf the Grey.
One of the joys of playing the character for McKellen is his broad appeal. “He appeals to really young people. Gandalf has 8 and 9-year-old fans who’ve seen his films a great deal more than I have. Their faces when they meet the actor who plays Gandalf are wonderful to behold, so that’s been special.”

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The two Hobbit films will be released in 2011 and 2012. Are you excited to see SIr Ian McKellen reprise his role as Gandalf the Grey in Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson’s ‘The Hobbit’?