Step aside Zac Efron, Hollywood has found a brand new It Boy (who happens to be a 60-year-old man). Okay, that’s a little extreme, but seriously: Tom Waits has always been beloved by music critics, and now his acting chops are finally getting their due.
According to Ain’t It Cool News’ “trusted” source, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro have thrown Tom Waits’ name into the mix of potential actors to either play one of Bilbo Baggins’ entourage of dwarves in forthcoming Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit—or Baggins himself. We think that Waits is more likely being considered to play a dwarf, as our resident Middle-earth expert says, “the other actors being considered [James McAvoy, David Tennant, Martin Freeman, etc.] make way more sense as Bilbo, in terms of age.”
To be clear, there are a lot of names being thrown around for various roles and AICN adds that Waits is “simply someone the production is talking about,” though “they seem to be talking about him pretty seriously.” I’m sure nobody’s buying plane tickets to New Zealand just yet.
Meanwhile, Happy Birthday, Mr. Waits!