Sarah Oliver - An A-Z of JRR Tolkiens The Hobbit: An Unendorsed, Colourful and Critical Guide Celebrating the Movies

British comedian and actor Bill Bailey auditioned unsuccessfully to play Glin.

Comedian Jarred Christmas also auditioned for The Hobbit but he, too, was unsuccessful. He told Spoonfed.co.uk: Last year I auditioned for The Hobbit, to play one of the dwarves. I thought I could do it in my Kiwi accent but the casting guy wanted me to do it in a British accent. I started off West Country, went a little bit Welsh and ended in Cockney. I didnt get the part. I dont think they were after an accent-schizophrenic dwarf.

Both Ronan and Jarred auditioned for speaking parts but there were hundreds of extra roles up for grabs. Casting bosses decided to hold open auditions in Lower Hutt near Wellington, New Zealand, to find the extras they needed, but so many people turned up that they had to call the police. They had naively expected no more than 1,200 people but the number ended up being 3,000-plus.

Although the first 800 were allowed to audition, they then had to stop before things got out of control. The audition queue grew ridiculously long, crowd wrangler Chris Ryan explained to 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 crowds were pretty good, most of them were pretty sensible and had set up; they brought umbrellas and chairs and sunblock.

So many people wanted to be part of The Hobbit movie, and all sorts turned up. The official casting call had asked for men under 54 (163 cm), women under 5 (155 cm), big men with character faces 59 and over (175 cm-plus), men with large biceps of any height, women with character faces and long hair, men and women elves slim, athletic, 5564 (165193 cm).

The decision was made to do the rest of the auditions online rather than face-to-face, to prevent the same thing from happening again.

• Name: Azog
• Alias: None
• Race: Orc (Goblin)
• Played by: John Rawls
• Character description: Azog is the King of the Orcs of Moria. He has a huge head and is a ferocious warrior. He doesnt actually appear in the book version of The Hobbit, but fans were thrilled when they found out he would be in a flashback scene in The Hobbit movies.

The actor chosen to play Azog was John Rawls, who trained at the EADA Academy of Dramatic Art in London and New Zealand. He has appeared in movies, plays, TV shows, music videos and commercials in New Zealand and in the UK. John is very skilled in stage combat (armed and unarmed), which helped him a great deal when playing Azog. He is a keen musician, his instruments being the guitar and trombone. In his spare time, he likes to rollerblade and writes scripts.

John is best known for playing Zurial in 30Days of Night (2007) and Hell Rider in the 2010 movie, The Warriors Way. In April 2012, when it was announced that he would be playing Azog, fans were left feeling confused because Peter Jackson had written on his Facebook page back in May 2011 that Conan Stevens had been cast in the part. He wrote: Last, and certainly not least, is Conan Stevens, who will be playing an Orc called Azog (Orcs are never called Roger or Dennis for some strange reason). And yes thats his name Conan! Isnt that cool? Azog is played by Conan! Heres a photo of Conan and I together. Im pretty tall, probably at least 65 or 66 I would guess, so that gives you some clue how tall Conan is!

It was then reported that it had been misinformation first time around and instead Conan would be playing Bolg. Fans writing on online forums suggest that Peter had been right initially but that Conan had been promoted to Bolg because it is a bigger part, so thats why John replaced him.