The Hobbit Movie Bags its Bilbo

What has Peter Jackson got in his pocket? Why, it’s a cast list for the Hobbit movie.

We knew that someone had a date with Gollum under a mountain, but until today, we didn’t know who. Peter Jackson, along with the heads of New Line Cinema, MGM and Warner Bros., has announced a partial cast list for the upcoming Hobbit movies, including most of the dwarves and the movie’s titular halfling.

Martin Freeman, star of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie and the British version of The Office will play the lead character, Bilbo Baggins. Jackson said that despite all the rumors and speculation about the role, he had known that Freeman was perfect for the part from the moment he’d met him, adding that, much like Bilbo, Freeman was “intelligent, funny, surprising, and brave.” As well as Bilbo, Jackson has cast eight of the thirteen dwarves that will venture off to Lonely Mountain to reclaim it from the dragon Smaug. Richard Armitage, who recently appeared in the UK TV show Robin Hood and will play Heinz Kruger in the upcoming Captain America movie, is playing Thorin, the head of the dwarven band and heir to kingdom located inside the mountain.

Rounding out the band are Aiden Turner and Rob Kazinsky, who appear in British TV shows Being Human and EastEnders respectively, and play Thorin’s nephews Kili and Fili. Graham McTavish, who played Mikhail Novakovich in 24 and has lent his voice to games like Dante’s Inferno and Dragon Age: Origins will play Dwalin, the first dwarf that arrives in Bag End. John Callen, who has appeared in two different series of Power Rangers, will play Oin, Stephen Hunter, from Australian medical drama All Saints, will play Bombur, Mark Hadlow, who featured in King Kong will play Dori, and Peter Hambleton, who appeared in TV show The Strip, will play Gloin, father of Gimli.

There are still five other dwarves to be announced, not to mention important characters like the shape-changer Beorn and Bard the Bowman, so expect to see at least one more announcement in the future. Filming on the project starts in February, with the first of the two movies hitting theaters in December 2012.

Source: I Watch Stuff