Billy Connolly to play dwarf warrior in 'Hobbit'

Scottish actor and comedian Billy Connolly will join the world of Middle-earth to play a dwarf warrior in Peter Jackson's Hobbit films, the director said, completing the casting of the two long-awaited movies.

The gruff Connolly, nicknamed the "Big Yin" or "big one" in his hometown of Glasgow and known for his dishevelled silver hair and bushy beard, will take on the role of Dain Ironfoot.

"We could not think of a more fitting actor to play Dain Ironfoot, the staunchest and toughest of the dwarves, than Billy Connolly, the Big Yin himself," Jackson said in a statement. Connolly joins a cast that also includes Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellan, Orlando Bloom and Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, the mild-mannered hobbit who journeys through Middle-earth on a quest and comes to possess the ring that features in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the fourth film in director Jackson's Lord of the Rings film franchise and the first of a two-part prequel to the trilogy, which became among the biggest blockbusters ever.

The film is currently in production in New Zealand, and will be released in December. The Hobbit: There and Back Again is slated for release in December 2013. Last month, auditions for locals as extras in the films attracted more than a thousand people to a small suburban hall and created traffic havoc, forcing police to shut down the screen tests.