Legolas forever

SINGAPORE- Girls, rejoice. The svelte blond male supermodel of Middle-earth is back.

Legolas is leaping onto the big screen with a vengeance in The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, which opens here tomorrow.

Orlando Bloom, who reprises his role as the scene-stealing elf prince from The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, gets a fair bit of screen time in the prequel, to show off his slick moves, be it swinging gracefully down from a tree with the wind blowing in his hair or shield-surfing down a wall while shooting arrows at enemy orcs with great speed and accuracy.

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug continues the adventures of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) as he accompanies wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and 13 dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) through the Woodland Realm of Mirkwood forest where they encounter Legolas and his dwarf-averse family, headed by Thranduil (Lee Pace).

Playing Legolas has, no doubt, been the highlight of Bloom's career.

It turned the British actor from a fresh-out-of-drama-school rookie to a global matinee idol, opening many doors for the 36-year-old from Canterbury, Kent.

In the two years following the release of The Fellowship Of The Ring in 2001 and The Two Towers a year later, Bloom's celebrity status grew, with the media crowning him with titles from "the star to watch" to "the hottest Hollywood bachelor".

Playing blacksmith-turned-pirate William Turner in the popular Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise from 2003 to 2007 raised his profile even more.

But his star did not shine beyond that, which is why Bloom should be thankful that he has Legolas - his first and still his most famous role - to give him a second wind.

FAN FAVOURITE

When The Hobbit director Peter Jackson announced on his Facebook page in May 2011 that Legolas would be brought back, his decision received over 1.3 million fan "likes".

Legolas has become such a pop culture icon that he even had a shout-out in last year's The Avengers.

But J. R. R. Tolkien purists may be tearing their hair out since Legolas was not mentioned in The Hobbit book. However, Jackson, 52, has taken creative licence to expand his Middle-earth universe, telling Entertainment Weekly: "Legolas isn't discussed in The Hobbit, but as far as Tolkien is concerned, he would have been part of that structure within the Woodland Realm. And we needed characters within the Woodland Realm to drive the story."

He said in another interview: "When Legolas shows up in The Lord Of The Rings, we learn that he's Thranduil's son, so when we visit Mirkwood in this film, it seemed like a great opportunity to bring back Legolas."

BEST IN GREEN TIGHTS

Shaking off an alter-ego is hard - it is not that Bloom did not try.

Becoming a member of Johnny Depp's crew in Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl in 2003 and its sequels offered glimpses of hope, but Legolas proved too memorable a character.

Playing the wimpy Paris in Wolfgang Petersen's period epic Troy (2004) also did not change his fortunes much. Neither did taking on lead roles in Kingdom Of Heaven and Elizabethtown, both in 2005.

After three Pirates movies - Bloom chose not to return for the fourth - he went on to dabble in some independent flicks such as New York, I Love You (2008), Sympathy For Delicious (2010), Main Street (2010) and The Good Doctor (2011).

But the decision to go indie just made him more and more invisible.

FAMILY MATTERS

Becoming one-half of a celebrity couple - he hooked up with Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr in 2007 - allowed the curly-haired heart-throb to stay above the radar despite his waning film career.

A wedding in 2010 followed by fatherhood in January 2011 kept Bloom's fans occupied with his personal life.

It helped that tabloids were always showing photographs of Bloom and his ex - even after the impossibly good-looking pair separated in October - doing mundane domestic stuff with their adorable two-year-old son Flynn. For a while, we forgot about Legolas and were preoccupied with Bloom the dream daddy.

ROMEO MUST DIE

In September, Bloom attempted something different after finishing work on the second part of The Hobbit - playing the titular star-crossed lover in Romeo And Juliet, a modernised version of the beloved Shakespearean tale, co-starring Condola Rashad as Juliet.

But that did not last long.

Although he received the thumbs-up for his first Broadway effort, the play ended its run last week, a full month ahead of its original schedule. According to Broadway news website Playbill.com, it played to only 38.9 per cent capacity for the week ending Nov 17.

Just in time for The Desolation Of Smaug press tours, perhaps?

AGELESS HOTTIE

It helps that Bloom, in real life, has found his fountain of youth since his last trip to Middle-earth.

He said: "I'm so happy to have the opportunity to return to this world and this character. And, better yet, I got into my old costume when I came back, and it still fits."

Said Jackson: "Elves are immortal, so the 60 years between the two stories doesn't matter at all, and fortunately, Orlando doesn't look as if he has aged a day in the last 10 years."

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