Hobbit Casting Shut Down

It is always nice to have a little extra people show up when you are trying to find someone that fits in with a project, it heightens your chances of getting the right person for the job.

However, there can be too much of a good thing, as production company 3Foot7 found out when they had to recently shut down a casting call for extras for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

It was estimated that around 1,200 people might show up for the chance to become an extra in the film. They were looking for people of both tall and diminished stature, including women with ‘Character faces’, women with long hair, men with character faces and men with large biceps.

Instead the number of hopefuls swelled to over 3,000 bodies, enough of a crowd to call in the police to handle them. Although the grounds were large enough to handle the crowds, they began to become concerned for public safety as expressed by event organizer Chris Ryan:

“There’s a lot of parking there and there’s actually quite a lot of room, but as the day went on basically the line got so long, It was just starting to cause a few problems on the motorway, people slowing down and looking at the crowds, really, I think more than anything else.”

The search for extras for The Hobbit will continue online.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will reach cinemas on the 14th of December 2012.

(Via The Guardian)