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Emily Watson (Theory of Everything) is set to co-star opposite Geoffrey Rush in Genius, National Geographic Channel's upcoming anthology series from Fox 21 TV Studios and Imagine Television. Also joining the cast are Michael McElhatton (Game of Thrones), Seth Gabel (Salem), Samantha Colley (The Crucible), Richard Topol (Covert Affairs) and Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men). Imagine principal, Oscar-winning helmer Ron Howard, is set to direct the first episode of the series…...

Hannibal introduced a new brand of horror this week in the form of Francis Dolarhyde, a lonely film-processing technician overcome by the urge to slaughter entire families in their homes. But according to his portrayer Richard Armitage, he wasn’t initially convinced he was the right man for the role.

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“The idea of taking on a character that does such appalling things has always been a worry for me,” Armitage explains. “I’m very conscious of what we depict on television, and it...

The undisputed standout in Peter Jackson's sixth and final Middle-earth movie The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was Richard Armitage, whose rigorous performance as the increasingly deranged Thorin lent psychological weight to what was otherwise an action-heavy final chapter.

Digital Spy spoke to Armitage this morning to discuss the final days of Thorin Oakenshield, his upcoming role on Hannibal, and his plans for a theatre reunion with The Crucible director Yaël Farber.

Now that you're more than a year out of it, how does it feel to look back on the Hobbit experience?

"You know what, it feels like a lifetime ago. I mean, I think we wrapped in 2013, but then the release of the final film at Christmas reminded us all of the work that we've done. It was such a nostalgic time because it was Pete's farewell to the Middle-earth saga, and it was really...

Irish filmmaker Brendan Muldowney (Love Eternal) will begin production in April on Pilgrimage, an action film set in 13th Century Ireland. Filming will happen on the west coast of Ireland and in the Ardennes region of Belgium. The cast includes Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead and Fury), Richard Armitage (The Crucible) and Tom Holland (The Impossible) who will wrap up shooting Backcountry in Northern Ontario, Canada this weekend. Pilgrimage follows a small group of monks as they undertake a treacherous pilgrimage to escort their monastery's holiest relic to Rome. Love Eternal producer Conor Barry will produce again, alongside John Keville from Savage Productions. While in Belgium they will be helped by Benoit Roland from Wrong Men North. Nick Spicer and Aram Tertzakian from Xyz Films will executive produce. Xyz...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

“The Hobbit” star Richard Armitage has joined the cast of NBC’s “Hannibal,” a spokesperson for the network told TheWrap.

He will play Francis Dolarhyde, a.k.a. the Tooth Fairy, on Season 3 of the psychological horror series, adapted from Thomas Harris’s popular novels “Hannibal,” “Hannibal Rising” and “The Red Dragon.” He is slated for a six-episode run.

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Armitage recently played the treasure-obsessed dwarf Thorin in all three of Peter Jackson‘s “Hobbit” movies, including “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” which came out last month.

I fear that Peter Jackson has been suffering from a similar affliction to the dwarf king’s “dragon sickness”: a compulsive lust for epicness. I’m “biast” (pro): big Tolkien geek…

I’m “biast” (con): …but Jackson’s second trilogy has tried my fandom

I have read the source material many times (and I love it)

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

The best thing about — finally! — reaching the third and last chapter of Peter Jackson’s ponderously epic eight-hour adaptation of the rather brief and chipper novel The Hobbit is that we may be assured that once the DVD hits next year, some intrepid fan is going to whittle the whole thing down into a breezy 105-minute phantom edit… like it should have been in the first place.

I am really looking forward to that.

A terrible affliction, er, afflicts the dwarf king Thorin here.

Richard Armitage has spoken about the nature of the theatre.

The Hobbit star said that actors need to build up their profile with television and film roles in order to land major theatre positions.

"It's incredibly difficult to fill a theatre with material that isn't Mamma Mia!", he told The Stage.

"When [the audience are] spending their hard-earned £85 for a theatre ticket, it's got to have something to pull them in and whatever it takes to fill a house is what we do."

The actor went on to reveal that he took on roles in television and film because he thought it would "afford [him] more opportunity to take on more important and bigger roles in theatre further down the line".

He added: "I kind of got lost down a road of TV and film so it's great to come back to theatre."

Armitage recently starred in the Old Vic's collaboration with Digital Theatre...