James McAvoy as Bilbo Baggins?

[davem]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

But it's essential to Bilbo's character that he is *middle-aged*: set in his ways, unwilling to adapt- the tension with *having* to adapt (in so many ways) is the mainspring of the story. A Bildungsroman with no Youth.

As I noted earlier, 50 years is a term that echoes throughout Beowulf (Hrothgar has ruled Denmark for 50 years when Grendel first turns up, Grendel's Mother has also ruled her own realm for the same period, & possibly most significantly in Bilbo's case, after his return from Denmark Beowulf rules his people in prosperity for exactly 50 years before the Dragon is aroused & he must begin his journey to face it (let's recall it was Tolkien's original intention that Bilbo slay Smaug). Its been pointed up a few times that the whole of TH could be read as an ironic take on Beowulf - the three trolls a kind of tri-partite Grendel, Gollum in his underwater cave-realm equivalent to Grendel's Mother, & Smaug being, well, the Dragon.

However, the idea that a mainstream Hollywood movie, aimed at a 17 year old male demographic (the average US movie-goer, apparently), is going to have a 50 year old hero is out of the question. We got an 18 year-old Frodo, & we'll get a Bilbo who'll look about the same, 'cos that's what the audiences want.