Stephen Fry and Ryan Gage join the cast of ‘The Hobbit’
The Playlist reports that “The Hobbit” has been filming for over a month now.
While Martin Freeman has wrapped his first block of shooting Bilbo Baggins and departed back to the U.K. to film the second season of “Sherlock.” But that doesn’t mean that the casting process has wrapped up—not entirely surprising, for a film with fourteen months of filming scheduled.
Director Peter Jackson‘s confirmed that one key role has been filled by an iconic British figure who’s been linked to the film for some time.
The director’s revealed on his Facebook page Stephen Fry has been cast in the key role of the Master of Laketown in the “Lord of the Rings” prequel. The character is a greedy, but mostly benevolvent, ruler of a trading town of men that’s plagued by attacks by an evil dragon, Smaug.
Peter Jackson on “Hobbit” set photo/Peter Jackson Facebook page
Fry started out in the Cambridge Footlights alongside the likes of Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson, and went on to comedy roles on TV, like in “Blackadder” and “Jeeves and Wooster.”
More recently, he’s had role in “V For Vendetta,” “Alice in Wonderland” and as Mycroft Holmes in Guy Ritchie‘s upcoming “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” and he’s been linked to “The Hobbit” as far back as last year, though things have only solidified now.
Jackson also revealed that British actor Ryan Gage, who’s appeared on stage opposite David Tennant in “Hamlet,” and in the hit show “Ghost Stories,” has been cast as Fry’s assistant Alfrid, while man-mountain Conan Stevens, who was seen on HBO‘s excellent “Game of Thrones,” will play an orc named Azog.
