Hectic day on the set of Peter Jackson’s upcoming, The Hobbit, a two-parter follow up to the hugely successful Lord of the Rings trilogy. Apparently organisers held an open audition for extras for the epic project and the response was also err.. Epic! Sources claim event’s organisers were expecting around 1,200 people at most for the auditions in Lower Hutt near Wellington in New Zealand, but an unprecedented amount of people came along, over 3,000 in fact and the event had to be shut down early after 800 were seen because of safety concerns. Police were called in to assist as the organisers were somewhat overwhelmed, senior sergeant Steve Braybrook told the media: "There was enough concern that the police attend." 3Foot7, the production company involved mad the decision to call off the remainder off the auditions as it was clear they had no way of controlling the sheer numbers involved."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," organiser Chris Ryan told the New Zealand Herald. "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 Hobbit casting call described a search for men the Hobbit casting were searching for men under 164cm and women under 155cm and big men with "character faces" over 175cm and men with large biceps. The female criteria involved women with "character faces" and women with long hair to appear in the movies. Organisers will now continue the remainder of the recruiting online.
