Police called to The Hobbit casting

Auditions for the ‘Hobbit’ films were forced to close down early after more than 3,000 wannabe extras turned up.

The casting call aimed to find extras for Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ prequels ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ and ‘The Hobbit: There and Back Again’, with organisers expecting around 1,200 people.

[See more: The Hobbit: An Expected Journey trailer]

Instead more than 3,000 appeared at the open-air auditions in Lower Hutt near Wellington, New Zealand and police were called after crowds began spilling onto a nearby road.

Because of safety concerns producers 3foot7 decided to close down auditions early... they only got round to seeing 800 people.

Organiser Chris Ryan told the New Zealand Herald: "As the day went on basically the line got so long... 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."

Perhaps the reason the lines were so big was the bizarre casting call that was widely publicised last week.

It called for men under 5’4”, women under 5’ and for fellas with “large biceps” and “character faces”.

In a video of the event shot by youtube user cambees, which shows enormous lines of people, one dejected hopeful said: “It’s been an experience anyway...I can’t die wondering ‘what if’”.