Hobbits maintain fellowship with plans for buddy movie

By Senay Boztas, Arts Correspondent

THEY made their names as the liveliest hobbits in The Lord Of The Rings but now the men who played Merry and Pippin are planning to make a different kind of buddy movie together.

Billy Boyd, one of Scotland’s most acclaimed stage and screen actors, and the other British “hobbit” star, Dominic Monaghan, have linked up with a leading Scottish playwright to write a buddy movie.

The two actors, who met on the set of Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning film trilogy, formed such a strong personal fellowship that they want to play themselves in a comedy about two inept Brits on a road trip around America.

David Greig, the award- winning Scottish playwright who is working with the would-be comedians, said: “Billy has worked with me before, and that very close relationship is what we want to pursue. It will probably end up being some type of buddy movie because they are such buddies.

“Things are still at very early stages and it takes a lot more time because Billy is filming a lot and Dom is living in Los Angeles. But I have a number of meetings about the project while I am in LA this week, and it is easier to raise the money here than it is in Glasgow.”

Greig has just finished adapting for the Traverse Theatre the flagship fringe show When The Bulbul Stopped Singing, based on the “moving and funny” diaries of Palestinian writer Raja Shehadeh during the month-long Israeli invasion of Ramallah in 2002. After his first rehearsal last week, Greig flew to LA to discuss several film projects including the light-hearted comic film with Boyd and Monaghan.

He said the three had knocked around initial ideas about two bemused Brits, played by the actors, who travel around America pointing out the strange habits and customs they find along the way.

Greig, who recently won a £30,000 Creative Scotland award for his writing, is involved in a series of film and theatre projects and has been invited to discuss a number of potential jobs in LA. Boyd is filming On A Clear Day with actor Peter Mullan in Glasgow, while Monaghan has just finished filming The Purifiers and Shooting Livien.

At a recent film premiere, Boyd said he was excited about the prospect of the film but that it was at an early stage. “We are working with David Greig but it is too soon to talk much about it at the moment,” he said.

27 June 2004

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