Now, when I first heard the news on the radio this morning that an actor had been cast to play Bilbo in the upcoming live-action adaptation of THE HOBBIT I was, admittedly, two-thirds asleep. So I thought at first that Morgan Freeman had been cast in the role.

Then, when I realized the news reader was saying Martin Freeman I thought: “Who?”

A quick look on the internets revealed a familiar face behind the unfamiliar name: “Oh, Tim from the British THE OFFICE! Arthur Dent from THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE movie! Oh, cool! He TOTALLY looks like a hobbit!”

My friend Dana, in fact, has been hoping against hope that Martin Freeman would be Bilbo since it was announced that they were finally filming THE HOBBIT.

So, much as I did when the STAR TREK reboot movie was announced, I’ve put together a photo line up of the announced cast (incidentally, that STAR TREK page was for a long time the most visited page on my blog. Curious to see whether the experience repeats with this post…)

 

  

 

Appearing as Oin will be John Callen, who apparently doesn’t exist on the internet…

Now some of these guys clearly look like dwarves already (I’m looking at you Stephen Hunter…) but I’m sure the rest will look the part once the prosthetic and beards are applied. It might help for now to imagine them looking more like this:

I, for one, can’t wait to see how they handle the dragon, Smaug.

Part 1 of THE HOBBIT is tentatively scheduled to begin making a fortune in December 2012.

– S.