Peter Jackson, director of the great Lord Of The Rings franchise, posted on Facebook that Evangeline Lilly from the hit series Lost has signed to the two-part film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit.
Lily will be casted alongside Cate Blanchett, playing a woodland elf named Tauriel, which means "daughter of Mirkwood." Jackson also mentioned that Australian character actor Barry Humphries will play Gorkin the Goblin King, in a motion capture performance similar to Andy Serkis' embodiment of Gollum.
These new additions are original characters, not ones taken directly from Tolkien's source material, so it will be interesting to see how Jackson tweaks the epic novel to his own liking.
Part one, titled The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, premieres December 14, 2012; the second film, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, hits a year later, on December 13, 2013.
[Via Fused Film]
