that may be small initially, but will get pretty important when the action heats up. So it's a good thing that Peter Jackson has found somebody who can give the character a bit more presence, confirming via the film's Facebook page that Stephen Fry(V for Vendetta
) will play the cowardly leader of men. Jackson also revealed a couple of other minor casting bits, which you can read about below..."We are thrilled to confirm that Stephen Fry will be playing The Master of Laketown. 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.
The Master's conniving civil servant, Alfrid will be played by Ryan Gage. Ryan is a great young actor who we originally cast in a small hobbit role, but we liked him so much, we promoted him to the much larger Alfrid part.
I only joined Bret's fan-base, when he joined up with Jermaine Clement in their hilarious tv series Flight of the Conchords. Now he is briefly back in Rivendell as a senior official at Elrond's Court and he has a name "Lindir", which means "singer". Tolkien has plenty of songs in The Hobbit but the script doesn't indicate that Lindir will be singing any of them. If, as he promises, Bret makes a Conchord feature film ere long, I shall angle for a non-speaking part as BIGWIT. ("Bret Is..." etc.)
Last, and certainly not least, is Conan Stevens, who will be playing an Orc called Azog (orcs are never called Roger or Dennis for some strange reason). And yes that's his name - Conan! Isn't that cool? Azog is played by Conan! Here's a photo of Conan and I together ... I'm pretty tall ... probably at least 6'5" or 6'6" I would guess, so that gives you some clue how tall Conan is! You can learn all about him at www.conanstevens.com."
The "Bret" he's referring to is Bret McKenzie, who has been pretty much confirmed for the Lindir role for awhile now. By the way, here's that photo of Conan, and as you can see the dude looks like the white Manute Bol...
The Master of Laketown is the individual elected to run the city of Esgaroth, and one of the few who wasn't all that happy with the arrival of Bilbo and his companions. When Smaug the Dragon destroys the town, the Master is held responsible, but shifts as much blame as possible to the Dwarves.
Fry will be seen next as Mycroft Holmes in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
