Martin Freeman is currently preparing to star as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. The actor recently revealed that director Peter Jackson altered the shooting schedule so he could join the production. Here's what the actor had to say:

"I had to turn it down because of being contractually obliged to do the second series of Sherlock for the BBC, which we are doing in the middle of this year. I turned it down with a very heavy heart because things like this don't come your way very often. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as far as scale is concerned. It's a huge, huge deal. But I was contracted to do Sherlock. I wanted to do both. When I found out I couldn't do both, it was very sad. And then it was very flattering when Peter Jackson rearranged the filming around my availability."

The actor also revealed the biggest downside to The Hobbit is leaving his home:

"It's very daunting - the daunting part is leaving home... I'm a real homebody, even before we had children, I was a homebody, so with children it's like aww...I'm very excited though."

We reported last week that The Hobbit production schedule is slightly delayed for director Peter Jackson to recover from ulcer surgery. Filming was originally set to start this month, although a new production start date has not been announced yet.