Live-Action 'How To Train Your Dragon' Nabs Nick Frost As Gobber

Frost joins Gerard Butler’s Stoick in the remake of the DreamWorks Animation classic

He’s no Craig Ferguson, but he will do. Nick Frost has joined the cast of Universal Pictures’s How to Train Your Dragon, the live-action remake of the beloved DreamWorks Animation film.

Frost will play Gobber the Belch, the trusted friend and adviser of Stoick the Vast, who is Hiccup’s father and the leader of the Viking clan. While Gobber was voiced by Craig Ferguson in the films, it was revealed earlier this week that Stoick’s voice actor, Gerard Butler, will be reprising his role in this live-action remake. They joined Mason Thames and Nico Parker as Hiccup and Astrid, the young teens who become Dragon Riders. Hiccup in particular forms a deep friendship with Toothless, a young black dragon he nurses back to health. Over the course of the franchise, they fight off and help the village overcome humanity’s hatred toward dragons, while overcoming grief and eventually falling in love with their own respective kinds.

Frost is best known for his collaborations with Simon Pegg, including in Edgar Wright’s The Cornetto Trilogy, encimpsssing Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End, as well as TV series Spaced and the movie Paul, which Frost wrote. With credits including Attack the Block and TV roles like The Nevers and as Santa Claus on Doctor Who, Frost’s previous DreamWorks experience had him voicing Stuart in Tales of Arcadia: 3Below and its culmination film Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans. He will soon be seen in comedy horror Krazy House, starring Alicia Silverstone, soon to premiere at Sundance Film Festivalq. He also has Corin Hardy’s Whistle.

The How to Train Your Dragon remake will be directed by original trilogy director and animation veteran Dean DeBlois in his first live-action effort. He will also be writing it, and producing it with Marc Platt, via his Universal-based Marc Platt Productions and its president Adam Siegel. Universal Vice President of production Lexi Barta is overseeing the film. 

Source: The Hollywood Reporter