Following the excellent news that Martin Freeman is to follow in the big hairy footsteps of Ian Holm and portray Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s two film adaptation of The Hobbit a new piece of casting, which some would call inspired, has landed on the doorstep of the internet.

Our friends at Bleeding Cool had the scoop on this one a while back and the man himself recently confirmed the news, and it seems Sylvester McCoy has signed on to play Radagast The Brown in the forthcoming return to Middle Earth.

The character is mentioned in The Hobbit and The Silmarillion and features in The Fellowship of the Ring (although not in Jackson’s movie) and I’m guessing that Jackson will look to expand the role to fight alongside Gandalf, and it’ll be good to see McCoy take to the big screen with shades of the mercurial which served him well in his time as the Seventh (and final ‘classic’) Doctor Who.

In other Hobbit related news the war of words between Jackson and the Unions concerning the filming of the two films took another turn as ‘Pro-Hobbit’ New Zealanders took to the streets to fight to keep Middle Earth on home soil. After the turbulent journey thus far let’s hope Jackson and his team can find solid ground soon.