This from Empire Online;
"THE HOBBIT
We're about three weeks away from turning over the first draft of the script to the studio,” revealed Jackson. That’s the script for the first Hobbit movie – the second still only exists in the form of “an extensive treatment”. He said that he and Guillermo del Toro are particularly enjoying writing for the movies’ unruly mob of dwarves. “We have 13 dwarves to cast – it’s going to be a lot of fun. Though there’s 13 poor guys who are going to be walking around the mountains in summer wearing heavy costumes, sweating under their prosphetic make-up. It’s going to be tough. And logistically tough – imagine getting those guys through wardrobe at the beginning of each day and then shooting… They'll be passing out from heat. It’s going to be tricky.”
It shouldn't be hard to cast 13 short people. I have heard that short people are hard up to find work and they get short pay on top of that when they do find work. Even in Hollywood; so I am sure there will be a big line of short people wanting to um stretch out for any role possible in The Hobbit. Whatever short people are left with out a role in The Hobbit should really try out to be a seeing eye person. I'm sure blind people would love to have a short person to walk them around besides some stupid dog.