Tuesday 5 January 2010

The Hobbit - Official Casting Call and Plot Details

The Hobbit - Official Casting Call and Plot Details

I don't often link to other people's blogs but this one looks very interesting. Apparently here is a list of the actual cast members they are still looking for. According to TORn, the list is legitimate, and came through official channels.

According to SpoilerTV.com they're looking for Bilbo, Thorin Oakenshield, Fili, Kili, Bard, Gloin, Radagast the Brown, a female elf called "Itaril", an unnamed warrior Elf-Lord from Rivendell, the Mayor of Laketown, Primula and Drogo (Frodo's mum and dad), a civil servant for Laketown called Alfrid, and the voice of Smaug.

There are some notable ommisions as well as unexpected additions. For instance, they've not mentioned the other dwarves Dwalin, Balin, Oin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori and Ori, and also missing are Beorn and King Thranduil, who are surely major characters.

There could be two reasons for the ommisions - either they've been written out of the stories, which I hope is not the case - if Tolkien put them into the story I'm sure he had good reason to do so. Way back when, before NewLine Cinema got involved in LOTR, Peter and Fran were faced with making a single, two hour version of LOTR, and were asked by Miramax executives to shorten the book, and shorten the list of main characters by "killing off a hobbit or two in the first 20 minutes" among other attrocities. Luckily, they didn't do that then, and it gives me great hope that we'll still see all 13 of the dwarves. After all, without 13 dwarves, Bilbo would have been unnecessary as the "lucky number" in the adventure!


The other, and much more likely reason I can see for the ommisions is that the characters have already been cast, and in secret. Previously, my vote for the most likely candidate for Beorn was Ron Perlman, while my personal guess for Thranduil would be Doug Jones.

<bitchmode> I'm not sure which dwarf role would be best for Tom Cruise though. Still pondering on that one. He seems much too short for any of them. Maybe he could be the voice of Smaug, exuding arrogance as he goes? </bitchmode> Sorry about that, I just watched Mission Impossible 2 again last night. I'll try to stay on-topic again.


Primula and Drogo don't make it into the book, but it would leave a lovely opening for the eventual link to the 3rd movie (ie, The Fellowship of The Ring!) - Primula and Drogo are Frodo's mother and father who both die in a boating accident (if memory serves me right), after which Bilbo takes over the guardianship over young Frodo.

The even more mysterious addition of the new female elf named Itaril will no doubt provide the apparently necessary romantic addition to the story. I personally have absolutely no problem with that - it's worked extremely well previously (Arwen barely makes it into the LOTR books, and is confined to a few footnotes in the appendices) and if anything gives the children's version of The Hobbit (as in, the book) a more adult, mature angle. Go Itaril! You have my vote! Finally a FEMALE hottie elf. :)


One other piece of missing information is the address to send your acting resume and application to. This confirms my earlier assertion that Actors applications won't be held publicly (like extras are), but will be done through casting agencies. If you don't have an agent and want a main part in The Hobbit, now would be an excellent time to get yourself one! Your agent will (or should) know the correct address already.


All in all, very exciting news! If the link is legitimate, it gives us more insight into the plot of the upcoming movies than any one other piece of news over the last few years! What do you all think?

  - Jack M

18 comments:

  1. Cool, They Lifted your Blog onto the Southland Times Newspaper with this story, I Wonder if it made other NZ Papers? I should put in for an EXTRA.
    as I got auditioned for LotR when they where in town : )

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  2. Hehe, maybe I should ask my 11 year old daughter to come up with a voice for Smaug - she can do an incredibly realistic imitation of Gollum :-)

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  3. @Odentroll

    According to a quick google search, I've been picked up by the The Press, Waikato Times, Dominion Post, Taranaki Daily Post, the West Coast paper, the Timaru Herald, and the Auckland Herald. Also by TVNZ's website, TV3, and MTV(!), and I have variously been linked to, in at least half a dozen different languages.

    It was truly my 15 minutes of fame, I think. Quite fun.

    :)

    - Jack

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  4. @Heike

    Are you a local to Wellington? I'd love to meet up with you sometime, have a coffee in town or something if you're keen.

    Drop me a line, my email address is in my profile somewhere.

    - Jack

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  5. Wow, I know someone famous. MTV!!! You've arrived Jack. :-)

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  6. Ruth:

    I'll have arrived when people start calling me SIR Jack. :)

    I think I'll have to do some SERIOUS blogging for that though!

    - NotSir Jack

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  7. Jack:

    I am a young woman from far far away (netherlands). I have a short question. Can a someone like me- from another continent- also aply for a lead role in the hobbit?
    Is here an address known for principal roles in the hobbit?

    Thank you very much!

    Best wishes,

    Erle

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  8. Erle:

    If you're looking for a main role, you really need to get a good agent. They will know how to get in touch with the studio. If they don't know, get another agent!

    Most of the cast of LOTR was "foreign" (to NZ), so don't worry about coming from the Netherlands (I do too!)... Nice place to come from, btw :)

    - Jack

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  9. Jack:

    How funny you are from the netherlands (do you also speak Dutch?), I didn't expect that! It is a really nice country to live, altough now it would be better for me to live in NZ :)
    I have already tried to get an agent in NZ, but logically they cannot represent me, because I do not live there.
    I have no idea which agent to apply to, I don't think any dutch agency is involved in casting for the hobbit. Do you possibly have any suggestion?
    Or else I'll just send everything to P.O. Box 15104..

    Thanks in advance!

    Erle

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  10. Erle:
    I certainly do still speak Dutch - I can even still understand basic Friesian!

    I'm not quite sure what to suggest other than send your letter to the POBox address, and ask them what you should do.

    As I have mentioned in the past, I'm certainly not an expert, i'm just hoping for my own small part to play in this movie. I don't have a magic way in either.

    - Jack M.

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  11. The addition of Itaril is interesting indeed. From a curiousity standpoint, I was wondering what they were going to do about the lack of female representation in The Hobbit. I wouldn't mind seeing a strong female elven presence (I wouldn't mind auditioning for her either! :P).

    Still, it'll be interesting nonetheless to see how this all progresses. (Do you happen to know who's handling the castings? I know 3 Foot 7 is handling all the extras.)

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  12. Lady Nerd:

    Nothing is official as far as I know, but I would assume Liz Mullane Casting would be doing it, she did it for LOTR as well, and King Kong, I think.

    I'd try that first, or rather, get your agent to try her first. :)

    - Jack

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  13. Is it possible to appöy maybe for Itaril?

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  14. CheshireCat:

    Um, that was about a year ago - my feeling is that if you wanted that role, you should have applied for it a LONG time ago. On the other hand, I've not heard than anyone has been cast yet, so maybe get your CV into your agent if you have one. I'm not an actor, I'm not sure what that process is, but I would definitely hurry if you aren't already too late.

    Good luck!

    - Jack

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  15. Hi.

    Just out of curiosity. All hobbit movie extra casting calls have a, must be resident or have a valid work permit apply condition. If holding a specialists skill work permit with a jeweller in Qt, NZ, what options does that give me, if any? Any help on this would be most appreciated.

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  16. All hobbit movie casting calls have a must be a resident or have a valit work permit to apply conditon. Being a foreigner holding a specialist skills work permit with a jeweller i Qt, NZ, what options does that give me, if any? Any help on this would be most appreciated. Thanks.

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  17. @AndersMartin:

    Without knowing your details, I can only advice you to tallk to the NZ Immigration people. I'm sure they get this question quite a lot at the moment. Try them at their website first:

    http://www.immigration.govt.nz

    Apart from that, maybe give them a call, their phone number is on their website.

    - Jack

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