Australian actress Cate Blanchett has been signed for a role in director Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epic "The Hobbit".

She will play the role of the ethereal elf Galadriel, that she played in Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, reports imdb.com.

The announcement of Blanchett's casting comes as something of a surprise, since the character of Galadriel doesn't actually appear in Tolkien's novel.