Cate Blanchett And Another Five Actors Join The Cast Of The Hobbit!

things have really been looking up for this project ever since they sorted out the mess

now we're just waiting on McKellen and Mortenson's confirmations, cant wait. Im interested to see this take already because it already includes more characters from the LOTR than the Hobbit.

@ckal Tom Bombadil was never in the Hobbit although he should have been in the extended of the fellowship. Jackson claims that T Bombadil doesn't "have a significant role in the war of the ring and Frodo's journey to murder". I for one call that horse shit! Tom Bombadil is the greatest tolkein character there is, nuff said =D

After reading the book, I can say that a film adaption could be really epic. Can't wait to see Smaug.

WTF is Galadriel doing in the Hobbit? She has NOTHING to do with that story! It looks to me like they're just finding ways to squeeze in a bunch of popular characters from LOTR to find ridiculous ways to pad this out to two bloated movies instead of one fairly long but complete telling of The Hobbit's story. As much as I love The Hobbit- and it is one of my all-time favorite books- this movie is sounding more and more like an epic failure- a crushing disappointment that may even surpass the Watchmen. The Hobbit is an epic adventure that has a really cool dragon and some fantastic adventures. WHY must it be corrupted with characters that don't appear in it?

Bitch, bitch, bitch, here we go again. As a huge LOTR fan, Jackson and company couldn't have done a better job. It was amazing. The biggest disappointment to me wasn't Bombadil or the Barrows, but leaving out the scouring of the Shire. I think it would have been awesome to see the Hobbits return to an overrun Shire only to kick ass and take it back!!! Relax everyone, PJ will make another epic masterpiece.

radagast was only mentioned. maybe a thought bubble scene?? as long as they put the whole book in, and any additions or changes are minor, ill be happy. they did fine with lotr, so this should be a cake walk for them

ok... just read all 4 books within the last year and literally just watched the entire extended trilogy last weekend........

so..... galadriel will most likely show up during the battle with the necromancer who turns out to be sauron trying to take over mirkwood; again..... events that apparently took place while bilbo and co. were making there way to lonely mountain, sans mithrandir...

awesome news @JOSH!

I agree with sansClaymore and intruder.

I want to see the badass side of Galadriel. I was a little put off by how she was portrayed in LOTR. If i didn't know who she was and capable of I would have thought she was this weird, old elf chick who "passed the test." Showing who she is will make her parts in LOTR make more sense.

Damn. This is a good thing. I mean, did anybody really know Andy Serkis, Karl Urban, Billy Boyd or Dom Monaghan before LOTR? They seem to cast who's best for the part, not the box office. Worked before....

And sad that CBM.com is now getting spammed with ad's. Yes, I'm talking to you, dfserercdg. What a username...

This is just getting better and better!:) Ken Stott is [frick]ing great actor! Anyone seen The Boxer, Plunkett & Macleane, Messiah or the Vice?!
Hope Michael Fassbender joins in the cast too!

ckal: I know I've heard of several other popular characters from LOTR showing up in the movie adaptation of The Hobbit, including Galadriel, Legolas, the Sorcerer of Dol Guldur(revealed in LOTR to be Sauron, but who doesn't actually appear in The Hobbit), and one or two others whose name escapes me at the moment. I do remember seeing that it was resolved they would NOT have Aragorn appear, which is good. Just because these characters were alive at the time of The Hobbit doesn't mean we need to see them. The Hobbit should only involve the adventures of a company of dwarves, a wizard, and one initially reluctant hobbit on their way to the Lonely Mountain to confront a dragon, and the various characters that cross their paths on that journey. We don't need to see the battle against the Sorcerer of Dol Guldur or anything directly associated with that, since its only purpose in the story (at that time) is to separate Gandalf from the dwarves and Bilbo for a while. It will prove to be important in LOTR, but that's another story.

Intruder: While it has been admittedly a year or so since I last read The Hobbit, I don't remember Galadriel being specificially named in it. I DO remember seeing her in the Silmarillion, which I haven't pulled out in a while.

@ Comicbookguy

Theres actually a lot of ongoing events in the Hobbit if you read the appendixes in Return of the King. I think Peter is fleshing out the 2nd movie more into those ongoing events so for one, we/he can say farewell to the original cast how he wants and to fill in the backstory. You have to recall that this was supposed to be 3 movies when Deltoro was running the show. The 3rd was all inbetween stuff from the books, leading up the the Fotr. Now its 2 movies again and all the extra story has gotten pushed into the Hobbit sequel. Saying your sticking to the Hobbit is one thing but its narrowminded and your missing the bigger picture that is the War of The Ring starting.

weaponxcustoms, I think it was always going to be 2 movies, as that was Del Toro's intention (although I could be wrong). I trust Jackson's vision and think it will be done tastefully, if they do edit the book to expand on events that were happening during The Hobbit, but might not have been in the forefront.

And I'm with SFCamerica, the scouring of the shire was the most important part that was left out of RotK, not Tom Bombadil.

@comicb00kguy

it is because of people like you, that cannot handle other people's adaptations, that give comic book/sci-fi fans a bad name.

Will this be perfect? No, I am sure that all Tolien fans, like most fans of a certain genre, will find some reason to not like an adaptation befcause a character was left out or a line was given to another key player or something like that.

I am a giant LOTR fan...I had a giant map of middle earth in my room in college. But as longas the essence of the story is still in tact and there are not any MAJOR changes then I will be happy. If we get to see some things on screen that were merely mentioned in the book or went on in the background you have to admit will be cool to see.

Just relax, man.