THE HOBBIT NEWS

Billy Connolly Joins 'The Hobbit' Cast as Dwarf Warrior Dain Ironfoot

by Alex Billington
February 8, 2012
Source: Deadline

They're not done with The Hobbit yet! Still shooting, still casting, until today! Deadline reports that Peter Jackson has cast Billy Connolly in the role of Dain Ironfoot, a great dwarf warrior and cousin of Thorin Oakenshield. Jackson announces the news: "We could not think of a more fitting actor to play Dain Ironfoot, the stanchest and toughest of Dwarves, than Billy Connolly, the Big Yin himself. With Billy stepping into this role, the cast of The Hobbit is now complete. We can't wait to see him on the Battlefield!" Me either! This is great news to round off their casting, as Connolly is a fan-favorite character actor and fine addition.

Dáin Ironfoot was second cousin to Thorin Oakenshield, and responded to Thorin's call for help during the quest to reclaim Erebor, which is the story in The Hobbit, but likely only the later half of the second movie (There and Back Again, due out December 2013). Dáin set out with several hundred Dwarves, and arrives just in time for the Battle of Five Armies, and plays a pivotal role in that finale. Which is why he's the last to join but also the perfect one to cap off an otherwise phenomenal cast for these two movies. We've already seen one trailer so far, and there's plenty more to come as The Hobbit continues shooting in New Zealand.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit... The Hobbit, being directed by Peter Jackson in two separate parts, is set in Middle-earth 60 years before Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in a trilogy ten years ago. The Hobbit films, with screenplays by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson, will be shot consecutively in digital 3D using the latest camera technology. The Hobbit follows the journey of Bilbo Baggins, played by Martin Freeman, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey arrives in theaters in 3D on December 14, 2012.

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Filed under Casting, Hobbit, Hype, Movie News

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