Brian Cox to play Hobbit dwarf?

Casting details for The Hobbit are harder to come by than a female Tolkien fan with her hymen broken, but one small role looks like it might have been filled already. Maybe they're casting in height order.

Brian Cox is easily one of the least selective actors around; the kind of guy who hit the heights of his career long ago and is now happy to sign on the dotted line for both high-profile acting gigs and low-rent slum-jobs. This is the guy who appeared in David Fincher's Zodiac and The Water Horse: Legend Of The Deep in the same year.

A new rumour suggests that Cox has been connected with a role in Guillermo del Toro's eagerly anticipated adaptation of The Hobbit. Allegedly, he'll play one of the book's thirteen dwarves, thought to be either Balin or Thorin Oakenshield, even though the latter sounds like a Norwegian DJ.

Does Cox fit in The Hobbit? (Arf). Well, John Rhys-Davies went with a Scots brogue as Gimli, so as a native Jock, Cox would certainly sound the part. We can also imagine him with a long beard and a little helmet on, for what that's worth.

Take this rumour with a pinch of salt for now. The source is Ain't It Cool News, who can be trusted as much as you can trust a site run by a man who openly admits to crying while writing his review of The Fellowship Of The Ring.