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THE HOBBIT NEWS

Sylvester McCoy Cast in 'The Hobbit' as Radagast the Brown?

by Alex Billington
August 29, 2010
Source: Dunoon Observer, Bleeding Cool

Yesterday evening, our friends at ComingSoon picked up on a bit of casting news found on the Argyllshire Standard website. Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy (who once played Doctor Who in the late 80s) told the newspaper that "I am being cast in The Hobbit," but added that it's not fully official yet. "We're currently in negotiations - there are two of us under consideration. It's not the Bilbo role, but could be bigger." So what role is he talking about? Well, Bleeding Cool claims that it might be that of the wizard Radagast the Brown from JRR Tolkien's novel. But we still don't know when/if they're ever going to shoot the movies.

Radagast the Brown mainly appears in The Lord of the Rings books and he's the one who, unwittingly, lures Gandalf into Saruman's trap in Fellowship of the Ring. However, we know that they expanded The Hobbit a bit to fit into two movies, so Bleeding Cool speculates that maybe we'll actually get to see the battle between the wizards and the Necromancer. Radagast is only mentioned in The Hobbit, so they must be expanding his story a bit. Despite this recent casting updates, we still have no idea when they're planning to start shooting, if MGM has worked out any of its problems, or who is even directing, but we'll definitely let you know once we hear any more. For now, it looks like they're still keeping pre-production progressing exactly as planned.

Filed under Casting, Hobbit, Movie News, Rumors

From around the web:

Neo_3

When is Radagast the Brown bigger than Bilbo?
Scotty

When he stands up.....BooBoom.
http://amodernamericanman.wordpress.com/ ModernAmericanMan

A role only mentioned in the book The Hobbit (which I'm sure many of us have read more than once) is not a bigger role than Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo Baggins will be the biggest casting news of the films...If they ever make them...
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

^ Right, but I don't think that's what he means. I think he means bigger in the sense that he'll be playing a wizard who has an important role. There's of course NO bigger role than Bilbo, but I think he's just trying to hype it up. It says he's definitely playing a wizard, and apparently it's Radagast.
67alecto

Ice-hot!
harrison

yea hes only briefly mentioned in the book, but if they expand on the necromancer fight that could be pretty cool
Cracky

Lol'd at Scotty.
beavis

i don't care who is in it at this point - i just want them made!
http://amodernamericanman.wordpress.com/ ModernAmericanMan

True Alex. I'm aware of the attempt to hype it up. I felt as if he was being a burglar of Bilbo's role, but as Gandalf says in The Hobbit, "If I say he is a Burglar, a Burglar he is, or will be when the time comes. There is a lot more in him than you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea of himself." What's encouraging is that there are still casting discussions taking place. The momentary silence was making me nervous. Hope awaits yet.
Jimmy Love

Well hopefully this means its finally getting made
dr film

It's now been pushed back from NOV 10 To start shooting JAN 11 for 1 year. They've just put out another call for Bilbo as MARTIN FREEMAN http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0293509/ Couldn't commit to that time away.
David Banner

is Radagast the Brown even mentioned in The Hobbit???
Bill Brasky

Which movie is the pic of Sylvester from?