Source: Peter Jackson Facebook | Posted By: Dan Geer
Last week, Peter Jackson delivered the sad news that Rob Kazinsky, who was originally cast as Fili the dwarf in The Hobbit films, had to drop out of the project for personal reasons. Today, Jackson announced that Kiwi actor Dean O’Gorman (The Almighty Johnsons) will serve as Kazinsky‘s replacement, and also revealed that Lee Pace (The Fall) will play the Elven King Thrandruil! Read on to check out the official announcement!
Regarding the new cast members, Peter Jackson said:
I’m very pleased to be welcoming two new cast members to our team.
Dean O’Gorman will be playing Fili. Dean’s a terrific Kiwi actor, who I am thrilled to be working with. He’s recently been in an excellent TV series down here called “The Almighty Johnsons”, and I should let fans of that show know that our shooting schedule allows Dean to continue with a second series next year. Dean will be joining us next week.
I’m also pleased to announce that Lee Pace will be playing the Elven King Thrandruil. Casting these Tolkien stories is very difficult, especially the Elven characters, and Lee has always been our first choice for Thrandruil. He’s going to be great. We loved his performance in a movie called “The Fall” a few years ago, and have been hoping to work with him since. When we were first discussing who would be right for Thrandruil, Lee came into mind almost immediately.
It’s been a great week, and I’m looking forward to the next few. It’s going to be interesting …
More soon.
Cheers,
Peter J
For those of you not in the know, Fili is one of the twelve dwarves that accompany Bilbo on his quest in The Hobbit, and Thrandruil is the father of Legolas, who was a prominent character in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
The Hobbit (Parts 1 & 2), directed by Peter Jackson, stars Martin Freeman, Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Christopher Lee, Orlando Bloom, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott, Graham McTavish, William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, Aidan Turner, Peter Hambleton, John Callen, Jed Brophy, Mark Hadlow, Adam Brown, Ian Holm, Lee Pace, Dean O’Gorman and Elijah Wood. Part 1 is slated for release in December 2012, followed by Part 2 in December 2013.
