Okay, so this is official ladies and gentleman as today Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema announced that Cate Blanchett, Sylvester McCoy, Ken Stott, Mikael Persbrandt, Ryan Gage, Jed Brophy and William Kircher will all star in Peter Jackson‘s THE HOBBIT.
Shooting on the two films, as the story is being split in two, is set to begin in February 2011. Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Guillermo del Toro wrote the screenplay.
Toby Emmerich, President and Chief Operating Officer, New Line Cinema, Alan Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer, Warner Bros. and Steve Cooper, co-Chief Executive Officer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (aka the three big studios behind the mammoth project) announced through an official press release earlier on today (Tuesday, December 7th 2011).
Blanchett will reprise her role from ‘Lord of The Rings’ trilogy as Galadriel, the Lady of Lothlorien. Ken Stott (‘Charlie Wilson’s War’, TV’s ‘Rebus’) will play the Dwarf Lord Balin, Sylvester McCoy (TV’s ‘Doctor Who’) will play the wizard Radagast the Brown and well-known Swedish actor, Mikael Persbrandt (‘Everlasting Moments’, ‘Day and Night’) will play the shape-shifter Beorn. British actor Ryan Gage (‘Outlaw’, TV’s ‘Doctors’) will play Drogo Baggins, with New Zealand actors Jed Brophy (‘Lord of The Rings’ trilogy, ‘District 9’) playing the role of the dwarf Nori, and William Kircher (‘Out of the Blue’; TV’s ‘Legend of the Seeker’) rounding out the company of Thorin Oakensheild in role of the dwarf Bifur.
Jackson said the following after the release of the casting news of Ms. Blanchett: “Cate is one of my favorite actors to work with and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have her reprise the role she so beautifully brought to life in the earlier films.”
Referring to actor Ken Stott, Jackson commented “Fran and I have long been fans of Ken’s work and are excited he will be joining us on this journey.”
On Mikael Persbrandt: “The role of Beorn is an iconic one and Mikael was our first choice for the part. Since seeing him read for the role we can’t imagine anyone else playing this character.”
Martin Freeman leads the cast as Bilbo Baggins.
The first film is set to be released in cinemas in December 2012, with the second arriving a year later in 2013.
