Peter Jackson has been giving us updates again via his official facebook page on the casting of the Hobbit films currently in production in New Zealand. Jackson has been generous with news about the films which he often communicates quickly to followers of the project, the last we heard from him it was announced that Ian Holm would be returning to Middle Earth in the role of Bilbo Baggins, portraying the character in scenes where he is required to be an older character in the story.
You can read the latest announcement to come from Jackson below;
I’m very pleased to be welcoming two new cast members to our team. Dean O’Gorman will be playing Fili. Dean’s a terrific Kiwi actor, who I am thrilled to be working with. He’s recently been in an excellent TV series down here called The Almighty Johnsons, and I should let fans of that show know that our shooting schedule allows Dean to continue with a second series next year. Dean will be joining us next week.
I’m also pleased to announce that Lee Pace will be playing the Elven King Thranduil. Casting these Tolkien stories is very difficult, especially the Elven characters, and Lee has always been our first choice for Thranduil. He’s going to be great. We loved his performance in a movie called The Fall a few years ago, and have been hoping to work with him since. When we were first discussing who would be right for Thranduil, Lee came into mind almost immediately.
Fans of the cancelled TV series “Pushing Daisies” would no doubt recognise Lee Pace from the lead role in that series ‘Ned’ the pie maker, he is also involved in the two part film in the twilight saga ‘Breaking Dawn’.
Dean O’Gorman born in New Zealand, has appeared in a number of different productions including ‘McLeod’s Daughters’, and the Sam Raimi executive produced series ‘Legend of the Seeker’.
