Lee Pace & Dean O'Gorman Join THE HOBBIT

Lee Pace has been cast as the Elven King Thranduil in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit! I think Pace is an underrated actor whose also been in films such as The Fall and The Good Shepherd, of course most you probably know him from the great TV series Pushing Daisies. It's so cool that he's been cast in this role, I'm excited to see him take on the character. I hope this leads him to doing more stuff. 

Jackson announced the casting news along with another actor whose been cast in the film as well named Dean O'Gorman. O'Gorman will take on the role of Fili. I don't know much about what the actor has done, but Jackson is excited to have him on board. Here's the official announcement from the director,

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 Thranduil. Casting these Tolkien stories is very difficult, especially the Elven characters, and Lee has always been our first choice for Thranduil. 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 Thranduil, 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

Here's some background info on Elven King Thranduil:

Thranduil, is a Sindarin elf, King of the Woodland Realm, and father of Legolas. He was the leader of the wood-elves of Northern Mirkwood for more than three thousand years in Middle-earth, seeing his realm through attacks by the greatspiders and the orcs. Thranduil was known for disliking the dwarves, a trait common among many of his kin. He is perhaps the most well-known of the Elvenkings among non-elves, if only because of Bilbo's exploits and tales.

Here's a little background info on the character Fili:

Fíli is the brother of Kíli they are the youngest of the thirteen Dwarves who set out on Thorin Oakenshield's quest along with Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins. Fíli's most distinguishing feature is his long nose, the longest of any of the Dwarves on the Quest of Erebor.

As the youngest Dwarves, Fíli and Kíli have the sharpest eyes and so they are often sent scouting or searching. They find the goblin cave in the Misty Mountains. Fíli hooks the boat on the other side of the enchanted river in Mirkwood. They scout Ravenhill and the Frong Gate with Balin and Bilbo. They also find Erebor's secret door with Bilbo. Fili and Kili are the two most active Dwarves of Thorin's company, and apart from Balin, and possiblyBombur, they appear more frequently as "individual" characters in Tolkien's book than the rest of Thorin's companions who are most often named only in "group" references to the entire company.

What are your thoughts on the casting of these two characters?