Houses of the Hobbit Diaspora

If you think that Hobbits are fictional, do not be fooled a second longer.  Middle-earth once existed, as did all of its various species.  Yet the hobbits found themselves obliged to leave their original home of The Shire. Rescued by the ancestors of a mild-mannered English writer, they have spread across the world.  A spell cast by the Gandalf the White means that the sons of men cannot see them but if you look close enough, there is evidence to be found.  A hobbit has to live somewhere, after all.  Here are just some of the houses of the Hobbit diaspora.

Image Credit Flickr User Sarah Stierch

Image Credit Flickr User Murray Barnes

The first evidence of hobbits goes back hundreds of years.  Sites in Scotland and Finland, to name but two, have shown that hobbits have been living among us for longer than anyone imagined.  In exchange for our hospitality, the Hobbits have sworn to help us thrive.  While you might argue that, globally, they cannot be doing too good a job of that, there are few hobbits to many millions of humans - so the scale of their assistance is not huge.

Hobbiton Reborn!

Just over a year ago Kuriositas reported on the state of the set of Hobbiton in Matamata, New Zealand. The news wasn't good.

After the filming of the Lord of the Rings, the owners of the farm upon which Hobbiton was created asked if some of the hobbit homes could remain to serve as an additional tourist attraction to the area. And they made it so, but soon things were being taken over by the sheep! Yet there is now good news from The Shire - what a difference a year can make!

Thanks to Sir Peter Jackson and his crew returning to Matamata to film the ‘prequel’, the set has been rebuilt – and how!  Sir Peter Jackson’s company and the farm have entered into a joint venture arrangement to allow movie fans to visit the newly reconstructed film set of The Hobbit. Sir Peter was recently pictured with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key (below) on the set which is now open again to the public - but with the set properly retained this time!

Image Credit Flickr User NZNationalParty

Image Credit Flickr User richhawk57

If you want to see how the set looked before Sir Peter’s return, please click here. However, below is a selection of pictures from the set which you are now able to visit, should you be (handily enough) in New Zealand any time soon! It seems odd, in a way, being able to visit the set of a movie which is yet to be released…

The Hobbit in Under 2 Minutes

If you are too busy lazy to read thebook and are listlessly waiting the never ending wait for the Peter Jackson movie version, perhaps you might want to consider filling your Tolkien knowledge in with this short animation by Declan Moran of The Brothers Grim and Grimy. 

It isn't quite like the Wikipedia entry either.  Described by Moran as Valley Girl + Hobbit + Lebowski = Most Concise Summary Ever, that pretty much gives you an idea about how you are going to spend the next two minutes.

As such, you are either going to love this or despise it with a passion.  You can guess my feelings by its presence on Kuriositas - though I must admit to being a fan of Moran's earlier work Dante's Inferno in Under 2 Minutes. It has spiked my interest in the book once again, so much that I can feel a scurry to the book shelves coming on...

Martin Freeman is Bilbo Baggins

Martin Freeman the British actor best known for his role as Tim Canterbury in the UK version of The Office is to play Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s two part adaptation of The Hobbit.  For fans of the actor everywhere this will come as great news – as well (one can only hope) as those of the Tolkien novel.

He may even get the opportunity to film in the UK if the location shoots are moved away from New Zealand because of an industrial dispute.  Although the New Zealanders will make every effort to renegotiate the deal it seems that some part of the UK may well benefit from the action.  Freeman seems to be perfect casting: as well as having delivered a number of Bilbo-like performances in his career he also has a believable likenes to Ian Holm who played the older Bilbo in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

The role of Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the dwarves goes to British heart throb actor Richard Armitage.  As well as currently starring in the BBC spy drama Spooks, Armitage can be seen in the new Captain America movie.  He is adept at playing goodies and baddies alike, relying on his dark good looks (as well as acting talent of course!) for both.  As well as the dashing hero in Spooks he most recently appeared as the nast Guy of Gisburne in the BBC's short live Robin Hood reboot.

As many people outside of the UK may not be familiar with the actors who have been chosen for the various roles in The Hobbit, here are pictures of the cast.

Below (top left) is Richard Armitage together with pictures of other The Hobbit actors.  Next to him is Aidan Turner who has been in the BBC3 cult smash Being Human as the vampire John Mitchell.  Underneath we have Rob Kazinsky who played Sean Slater in the BBC soap opera Eastenders.  They both have extensive experience of snarling in their recent TV roles so will be quite at home in The Hobbit as they will both play dwarves.  Turner will play Kili and Kazinsky gets the role of Fili.

Kazinsky particularly must be pleased to death to cast off the shackles of TV soap (however successful and worthy) and must be anticipating doing an Orlando after appearing in these movies.

Middle right is Graham McTavish whose face is (you  have guessed it) also familiar to British TV audiences.  The actor who has been chosen to play Dwalin in The Hobbit has, like the others in this ensemble, been around for quite a while.  His face may be familair to you as that of Warden Ackerman in Red Dwarf  which he played in five episodes of series 8. Mainstream US audiences may possibly recognise him as Ferguson who appeared in 4 episodes of season 4 of Prison Break.

Other dwarves will be John Callen (bottom left).  He will play Óin, son of Gróin.  Next on the bottom row (l to r) is Mark Hadlow  (Dori) and Peter Hambleton who will also play dwarves.  The films will attempt to capture the lucrative Christmas market and will be released in the December of 2012 and 2013.

Freeman has been in many TV shows as a jobbing actor as well as in co-starring roles but is also well known as a theater actor too.  He has appeared in several films, most notably as Arthur Dent in the adaptation of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.  Other films have included the Richard Curtis comedy Love Actually and Ali G Indahouse.

He also made two very brief cameos in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (he is a good friend of writer Simon Pegg).   TV roles are too abundant to mention but most recently he surprised and impressed viewers with is excellent portrayal of a modern day Dr Watson in the recent BBC drama Sherlock (picture left, with Benedict Cumberbatch).

It seems that if you are a fan of the BBC’s output then you will recognise a good number of the actors in The Hobbit.  If they can be trusted to do one thing it is to hire calibre actors.  At the very least it's that part of The Hobbit sorted: if the movie is half as good as its casting it's going to be wonderful.