Today I visited the town of Charming, California, which is run and protected by the motorcycle club Sons of Anarchy. Actually, I visited the North Hollywood studio where the FX Channel show is shot, and I sat down with most of the members of the cast. The leader of the Sons of Anarchy club is played by old CHUD favorite, Ron Perlman, sometimes better known as Hellboy himself.

While talking with Ron Guillermo Del Toro’s name came up; I took that as an opportunity to ask him about rumors regarding his involvement in GDT’s The Hobbit, which is being written right now in New Zealand. The rumor going around was that Del Toro wanted Perlman to play Beorn, a guy who can shapeshift into a bear. Looking at Perlman’s face it seems obvious that he would be the choice for the role (and while Beorn is a minor character, with The Hobbit being split into two films I bet many minor characters make the cut). I said we had heard that Guillermo wanted him in The Hobbit – had he and his four-time collaborator talked about it?

‘Did he say that?’ Perlman said, sounding legitimately surprised. And excited. ‘That would be nice,’ was all he could really say, as apparently Guillermo hasn’t reached out to him. Perlman did the audio book version of Guillermo’s novel, The Strain (co-written with Chuck Hogan), and he said that he hadn’t even heard from the director since then; apparently Guillermo’s so busy in New Zealand that he’s hard to get in touch with.

And so we come to the end of this non-story. It’s not surprising that Perlman hasn’t heard anything – there’s no casting going on, and GDT and the Lord of the Rings masterminds are still trying to get their script finished. That said, you have to be crazy if you think Guillermo won’t find a way to work Doug Jones and Ron Perlman into his films.