Cast This: Bilbo Baggins

So with Ian McKellen talking shoot dates and returning cast members for THE HOBBIT, I figured now was as good a time as any to try and find our lead Hobbit, before real-life casting news beats me to it. He’s going to be the centerpiece that holds this new project together, and unlike Frodo in LOTR, will actually be the main focal point of the story ALL the time, making his role even more important than Elijah Wood’s. He’s short, he’s hairy and he’s got a ring that he doesn’t quite understand, He’s Bilbo Baggins.

But you know, younger.

So what exactly are we looking for? Someone (relatively) small in stature, so there doesn’t have to be THAT much camera trickery, and someone preferably British, so they don’t have to egregiously forge an accent…though I’m not exactly sure what to call a Hobbit accent actually. British-ish?

Most importantly to me however, he has to be likable. At least eventually. Frodo in LOTR was consistently annoying, whether he was happy or sad or angry or constantly in some perpetual state of decay/coma/near death. Whether that was the writing or Elijah Wood’s fault, I’m not sure, but since Bilbo is pretty much the solitary hero of THE HOBBIT, we’re going to have to like him, or else this whole thing isn’t going to work, no matter how many awesome creature effects Del Toro comes up with.

I’ve heard you guys speculating about who should play Bilbo for a while now, but now I want to see it written down all in one place. There are obvious choices for the role, but I’m curious to see who else besides them gets nominated. And speaking of nominations…

Last Week: VENOM

We had a HUGE response to our VENOM casting call last week, as to who the symbiote should take over next. There was a general consensus that they should just recast Eddie Brock instead of finding a new host, and here are the results.

1. Michael C. Hall (12%) 2. Jeremy Renner (8%) 3. Vinnie Jones (7%)

If these numbers seem low, keep in mind that if you’re choosing from every actor alive, 12% is actually a pretty decent consensus.

Apparently you want to see Michael C. Hall make a leap to the big screen in something other than GAMER. I agree that he could be a pretty great choice for this, though I wonder how many of you chose him just because he’s played a killer already. Jeremy Renner might actually be better in my mind, and though Vinnie Jones seems a bit WTF initially (though yes, he looks the part), I could actually see this working out, as a role with multiple dimensions might actually bring something out in the actor we didn’t know he had.

Alright, now let’s get to work finding our Hobbit hero!