EXCERPT from CNN article:
She has even been in talks with Leicestershire lad turned Hollywood hero Richard Armitage -- last seen as Thorin Oakenshield in "The Hobbit" -- to play the king.
"He was born to play the role," she explains. "He's an amazing doppelganger for Richard III, he was born a couple of miles from Bosworth on the anniversary of Richard's death, and he was even named after him."
The film won't be the first attempt to rehabilitate Richard III in the eyes of the general public - mystery writer Josephine Tey tried it in the 1950s with "The Daughter of Time," in which her detective hero "discovers" the truth about the much-maligned monarch.
It was this book which first sparked the curiosity of Michael Ibsen, prompting him to rethink the image he had grown up with, of Richard III as "this evil figure who killed the Princes in the Tower."
Now the Canadian-born cabinetmaker finds himself at the heart of the story, with a role he could never have imagined when he read Tey's novel 20 years ago: The potential DNA match for a long-dead king of England.
"Of course, I'd rather be related to a benign king figure than a brutal murderer, so it's hard not to be biased, but some of the history is so vitriolic, I'm a little suspicious -- can he really have been that bad?"
Historian John Ashdown Hill, author of "The Last Days of Richard III," tracked down Ibsen's British-born mother Joy in 2004.http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/01/world/europe/search-for-richard-iii/index.html
Following stands out due to the captured glimmer in Thorin's eyes. This fan art is by Scarlet Raven at www.deviantart website..
As per above--always said there was only one thing that could improve The Tudors series. Where there's a will, there's always a way;D Might a spy during the American Revolution wear the above shirt? Definitely looks appropriate to me. There's a new A&E period drama currently in pilot stage. It's based on Alexander Rose's book "Washington Spies" which focuses on Revolutionary era spy ring. Surely they could use someone with a convincing British accent;)
New Yorker Magazine compliments Thorin performance:
No less welcome is Richard Armitage, scarcely known here, although he has throbbed hearts on a regular basis on British TV; he now pulls off the task, deemed impossible by every expert on Middle-Earth, of making a dwarf seductive. To be honest, the dwarves come across as a jumble of Brueghel faces, lit with grins, scrunched by scowls, and fronted by bulbous conks; only Armitage, as Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the pack, earns consistent dramatic attention, and he brings the rumpus of the early scenes to a beautiful halt as he pauses to croon, in a yearning baritone, an anthem of dwarf-desire—“Far over the misty mountains cold.”
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2012/12/17/121217crci_cinema_lane#ixzz2JEJU42aE 
In keeping with the "now there's a leader we can follow" theme:
http://www.historyextra.com/feature/tudors-time-it%E2%80%99s-political
http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/builder/?cs=ipsdb&ssid=ta-00a7-a74e-622c&theme=
http://www.clements.umich.edu/
http://genforum.genealogy.com/englandcountry/yorkshire/
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