Sherlock's Martin Freeman may play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit!

Yesterday, a story broke in The Sun that beloved British actor Martin Freeman -- hot off a successful run on BBC's Sherlock as Dr. Watson -- had been in the run to play the lead role in The Hobbit, that the actor had been offered a seven figure deal, and that he sadly had to turn it down because of his commitment to film the second series of Sherlock.

Today, EW reports that the two studios behind Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, Newline and MGM, are still keen on having Freeman, and that they are prepared to work around his shooting schedule to accommodate him. Apparently, all parties are currently negotiating a deal.

If this is true -- and it actually pans out -- I think that the studio is making the right choice in choosing Martin Freeman to play the iconic role of Bilbo Baggins. Not only does Freeman look like a younger Ian Holm, who played an older Bilbo in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but he is also an excellent actor. Freeman, who is widely known as Tim Canterbury from the original UK version of The Office, also starred in another sci-fi classic: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

So what do you think? Do you see Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins? Do you think he could make a decent job of it? Chime in!