Saoirse Ronan might not be in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit after all, the actress recently told the Belfast Telegraph (via The One Ring):
"It's probably not going to work out with The Hobbit unfortunately. Because I would have been working for about a year on it and there were other projects that I was very interested in."
The young actress was rumored to play Itaril, a young elf, but had yet to officially confirm her attachment to the project.
The Hobbit is currently in production in New Zealand