Lord Of The Rings Amazon TV Series Casting Weird-Looking Extras To Play Orcs

In their own words, one of the companies is after people who are either under five feet tall, or over six feet tall. They also must possess what they've tactfully called 'wonderful noses' or 'character faces'.

You know what they really mean, don't you?

The other has more specifically appealed for actors with wrinkly faces and 'hairy people of all ages and ethnicities'.

The agency added: "HAIR HAIR HAIR - if you have natural red hair, white hair, or lots and lots of freckles."

The advert also puts out a casting call for 'long lithe dancers', 'stocky mean-looking bikers', and 'redheads of all ages, shapes and sizes'.

Obviously, New Zealand isn't the biggest or most populous country in the world, so they've had to resort to using members of the public to fill their vacancies.

That means that they need weird-looking Kiwis.

You're not working for free, mind.

In addition to getting your food provided for, you'll also receive £148 per day. That's not a bad price for a day's work cavorting around dressed as a hobbit or a goblin

The idea is that if they cast strange-looking people to begin with, they'll save money and time on make-up and prosthetics.

Wise thinking, you'd have to say.

Despite that, the show has a remarkably large budget. Amazon has spent an eye-watering £190m just to obtain the rights to the show, which will be the first adaptation since Peter Jackson's films in the early 2000s.

Details of the show's cast and plot are being kept under strict secrecy. Obviously, it'll be based on JRR Tolkien's work, but we can't be sure exactly how.

The movie franchise, shot between 2001 and 2003, cost £225m to make and had a cast of around 20,000.

We'll have to wait and see how this one works out.