Fili and Thranduil Cast

Sir Peter Jackson has announced the casting of the roles of Fili (one of 13 dwarves with Bilbo) and Elvenking Thranduil (who captures the dwarves).

I'm very pleased to be welcoming two new cast members to our team.

Dean O'Gorman will be playing Fili. Dean's a terrific Kiwi actor, who I am thrilled to be working with. He's recently been in an excellent TV series down here called "The Almighty Johnsons", and I should let fans of that show know that our shooting schedule allows Dean to continue with a second series next year. Dean will be joining us next week.

I'm also pleased to announce that Lee Pace will be playing the Elven King Thranduil. Casting these Tolkien stories is very difficult, especially the Elven characters, and Lee has always been our first choice for Thranduil. He's going to be great. We loved his performance in a movie called "The Fall" a few years ago, and have been hoping to work with him since. When we were first discussing who would be right for Thranduil, Lee came into mind almost immediately.

It's been a great week, and I'm looking forward to the next few. It's going to be interesting...

More soon.

Cheers,
Peter J

Fili was going to be played by Robert Kazinsky but he had to leave production for personal reasons. Dean O'Gorman who is an actor from New Zealand that might be most familiar to American audiences as Iolaus in Hercules TV series from the mid-90s. Lee Pace was the lead actor on the critically acclaimed but short-lived TV series Pushing Daisies.