Heppi Birfdai, Gandalf!

Ian McKellen turns 69 today. (heh.... 69)

Other geeky birthdays: Cillian "Scarecrow" Murphy(32) and Frank "Yoda" Oz (64).

In other Tolkien-related news, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro held a huge-ass webchat yesterday and answered a bajillion questions concerning "The Hobbit." Some highlights:

 

• Both films (The Hobbit and the LOTR "prequel") will be shot back-to-back in 2010, with the first arriving December, 2011 and the second in December, 2012. As far as rating goes, they're shooting for "an intense PG-13."
• They will not begin casting until the scripts are written, but said Ian McKellan will "absolutely" return as Gandalf and Ron Perlman will return; most likely not as the voice of Smaug.
• Howard Shore will score the films.
• They're currently working on a Blu-ray version of all three Lord of the Rings films, but it won't be out this year.

-- FuzzyDave