THE HOBBIT has found another hero — actor Luke Evans (TAMARA DREWE) will play Bard, the brave bird-listening bowman who faces the deadly dragon known as Smaug.
Speaking of which, that great scaly beast now has a voice: British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, the star of BBC’s “Sherlock” (Bilbo himself, Martin Freeman, plays his Watson on the show). Cumberbatch recently slipped his involvement in THE HOBBIT without revealing the character. (Bill Nighy was previously rumored to provide Smaug’s rumbling voice).
Cumberbatch, recently seen on stage in Danny Boyle’s production of Frankenstein, will provide motion capture for the dragon, and is also providing the voice of Necromancer, the spirit form of Sauron. He’ll next be seen in Steven Spielberg’s WAR HORSE and the all-star update of the epsionage story TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY.
Evans will soon be seen in Paul WS Anderson’s silly-looking 3D version of THE THREE MUSKETEERS, and Tarsem Singh’s grand god battle IMMORTALS.
Peter Jackson’s 3D adaptation(s) THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY arrives on December 14, 2012, with THE HOBBIT: THERE AND BACK AGAIN following on December 13, 2013.
The epic tale features Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Bret McKenzie, Graham McTavish, Mike Mizrahi, James Nesbitt, Dean O’Gorman, Lee Pace, Mikael Persbrandt, Conan Stevens, Ken Stott, Jeffrey Thomas, and Aidan Turner. Returning players include Ian Holm, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Ian McKellan and Andy Serkis.