A Hobbit Round-up

It seems as if there is some new Hobbit news as each day passes so here is a quick round-up in case you didn't already know

 Saoirse Ronan

First...the rumour(s)....Saoirse Ronan (Lovely Bones, Hana) is rumoured to be playing Itaril. I reckon there is some weight to this rumour. Saoirse has already proved to be a fine young actress with a brilliant performance in the Lovely Bones and you could tell from the making of diaries on the LB Blu Ray bonus disc that she has a good relationship with Peter Jackson.

Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies, The Fall has been cast as Thranduil. I love Lee Pace's work. Pushing Daisies was cancelled well before it's time and I don't think I have seen Lee in anything of any worth, since so this is good news.

Lee Pace

Rob Kazinsky was cast as Fili in the Hobbit but has been forced to leave due to health reasons. Rob is best known in the UK for his role as Sean in the soap EastEnders. The role of Fili has now been given to Kiwi actor  Dean O'Gorman.

Dean O'Gorman

Andy Serkis has been named as Second Unit Director alongside his role as Gollum. This is no surprise as Andy has been a long term collaborator with Peter Jackson since The Fellowship of the Ring and he was also Dramatic Director for the Video Game 'Heavenly Sword'. You only have to look at the behind the scenes extras on the LOTR extended edition DVD's and witness the amount of input Andy had for the character of Gollum to see why Peter Jackson has given Andy this role.

Andy Serkis

Peter Jackson has revealed that The Hobbit will be filmed @ 48 frames per second which is double that of normal productions. This basically means a much, much sharper image. Plus the movie is being shot in 3D so it should be one of the best looking movies ever released.

Lastly.....another rumour doing the rounds is that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul) might make a cameo in The Hobbit. There were on the Hobbiton set whilst film filming TinTin (another Peter Jackson project) so I think it's unlikely you will see them on screen but you never know........