Cinematical posted this Peter Jackson/Guillermo Del Toro snippet about the casting of the young Bilbo:
That doesn’t mean they aren’t hard at work trying to find the main hobbit himself. Says Del Toro: “We are writing based on [Ian Holm’s performance], but other than that, we have ideas [of who could play him]. I can tell you that it’s down to a few names that we all agree upon. And that our first choice …completely, magically, we said the same name. All of us!”
Any time I try to think of any actor for anything I see Ryan Gosling. It ain’t going to be Ryan Gosling. So who could play a young Ian Holm of the popular actors today? I mean, someone who wasn’t already in the LOTR series? Cinematical thinks Martin Freedman.
That’s a good choice. Jamie Bell is also a good choice. But what about the kid from Finding Neverland? Freddie Highmore? He’s around 16. Does that make him too young to play Bilbo? There’s always Emile Hirsch. Shia? Zac?