Suddenly: Stephen Fry Is Cast in The Hobbit

Plumbing the depths of Britain’s great modern comedic tradition, Peter Jackson has cast Stephen Fry in the somewhat ignominious role of the Master of Lake-town, a character who will appear (unless I miss my guess) in the second of the two Hobbit movies. Said Jackson on his Facebook page:

“I’ve known Stephen for several years, and we’re developing a ‘Dambusters‘ movie together. In addition to his writing skills, he’s a terrific actor and will create a very memorable Master for us.”

Lake-town is the nearest inhabited settlement to the Lonely Mountain, the lair of Smaug, the story’s dragon antagonist (dragantagonist? antdragonist?), and the Master is its elected leader. The Master of Lake-town in The Hobbit is a character that might be interpreted as simply a pragmatic leader, more concerned with the politics of his position than the quest of the main characters, but in a very Tolkienesque way a slight tendency to greed is magnified by the presence of dragon gold.

And yes, despite a clear Hobbity disposition, Fry will be playing a human. We don’t mind, after his role in LittleBigPlanet, we can’t think of a single thing that couldn’t be improved by having Stephen Fry in it.

(via @stephenfry.)