The Office actor Martin Freeman will play in The Hobbit

The Office dvd actor Martin Freeman will play Bilbo Baggins in two-part Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit, director Peter Jackson has announced. He said in a statement there had "only ever been one Bilbo Baggins for us". Freeman, 39, was "intelligent, funny, surprising and brave - exactly like Bilbo", Jackson added. Meanwhile, Jackson's wife Fran Walsh has reportedly told a radio station filming could move to the UK because of an industrial dispute in New Zealand. "There are a few times in your career when you come across an actor who you know was born to play a role, but that was the case as soon as I met Martin," Jackson said. Spooks dvd actor Richard Armitage, 39 - who has a role in the forthcoming film Captain America: The First Avenger - will play Thorin Oakenshield - leader of the dwarves. Former EastEnders actor Rob Kazinsky, Sean Slater in the soap, will also play a dwarf. He will appear alongside Irish actor Aidan Turner, who has appeared in BBC Three's Being Human, and British actor Graham McTavish, who has appeared on TV shows including Red Dwarf. Other dwarves will be played by John Callen, Stephen Hunter, Mark Hadlow and Peter Hambleton. As with the Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, the film had been due to be made in Jackson's native New Zealand. But on Thursday, film studio Warner Bros said the ongoing pay wrangle with acting unions had "forced us to consider other filming locations for the first time". Jackson's wife and creative partner Fran Walsh, meanwhile, reportedly told Radio New Zealand that film producers "had people in the UK taking location photographs". "They've got a huge studio there that Harry Potter has vacated, the ex-Rolls Royce factory, that they say would be perfect for us." (by tracy) The Office Seasons 1-6 DVD Boxset The Office Seasons 1-5 DVD Boxset MI5(Spooks) Seasons 1-7 DVD Boxset MI5(Spooks) Season 8 DVD Boxset