What trilogy beforehand was better?

Dude, The Devil's Backbone and especially Pan's Labyrinth.

Things are moving forward!

Brings back memories from when LOTR was about to start filming. Good times.

Tonight I had the amazing opportunity to sit in a very relaxed setting with Peter Jackson and 30 of my best journalist friends and talk for about an hour and a half. Lots of ground was covered, from District 9 - the reason we were all there - to Tintin to The Lovely Bones (I saw four minutes of footage and it was gorgeous) to Jackson's geeky obsession with WWI airplanes. But some of the most interesting stuff came out of questions about The Hobbit. So here, based on my notes, are paraphrases of Jackson's info:

The first script will be finished and delivered in about three weeks. Peter, Guillermo del Toro, Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens started work three months ago after lots of time trying to figure out how to make the film work. They weren't sure whether to squeeze The Hobbit into one film and do a bridge movie with The Lord of the Rings or to give The Hobbit two movies. Jackson said they realized that even at three hours they would lose too much of what makes The Hobbit The Hobbit. On top of that they wanted to embellish some things and they wanted to add extra narrative for Gandalf as he deals with the growing threat of Sauron.

He did caution that since the script isn't done there isn't a budget, which means there isn't a green light, which means there isn't a start date, which means no actors have been approached. While he wants all the major players from The Lord of the Rings who would fit in this film back, there's been nothing official.

Since they haven't finished the first script they haven't begun the second at all, but they figure that once they get the budget for the first they'll have an idea what the second will cost and they can do pre-production at that time. Right now they're eyeing release dates of December 2011 and 2012.

Jackson is keeping all 13 dwarves, but that number of characters creates problems. They're going to pick four or five dwarves to make leads and keep everyone else in the background.

I'm hoping that the three week date means that things are going to really get moving on The Hobbit (and things are already moving behind the scenes), because that means we're going to get to learn more about this exciting project.

Jim here. Got some interesting HOBBIT news for you. The information I am sharing is from one of my most trusted sources and so you can rely quite a bit on it despite being very early in the production of THE HOBBIT(s).

Why am I so excited about this news I am about to divulge to you? It's because a lot of it I had already uncovered back in 2007. It is being collaborated right now! Sure, this is not ironclad yet - it is still early in the process, but this is not the first time I have heard these things. So how does this sound to you guys (especially if you are a new reader and didn't hear the first word from us on it):

1. THE HOBBIT(s) will be in stereoscopic 3D.
2. THE HOBBIT will be shot in THREE movies - two Del Toro movies covering the book itself and a third bridge movie.
3. Peter Jackson will direct the bridge movie.
4. Smaug and the characters in THE HOBBIT will be darker than in the book.

Here is what he has to say about the famed dragon that is soon to star in the movie and about PJ potentially bringing us a third HOBBIT movie (emphasis is mine):

"Smaug will be a mixture of practical and animation ...going purely on practical, the design rocks. I think THE HOBBIT may be a different beast to the book, at least in terms of going darker. And judging from Smaug "and the Gollum tweaks" will be something to rival the previous attempts at the very least. It is still very lock and key at the moment. I can tell you this, Peter Jackson is very keen to have the two part Hobbit tale set in 3D. Del Toro however is holding back on that school of thought. At least for the time being. Im hearing word "and its only speculation at the moment", that it wont be two films. It will be three. The two parts and the bridge movie. Word alone is not trustworthy. However I hear this from lots of people. And have seen things to indicate this may be the way it is heading. Del Toro on Hobbit duty, Jackson on the bridge project. Time will tell."

PJ directing a Hobbit/LOTR bridge film in 3D would bring in like 2 billion dollars. Well played WB, well played.

Don't blame us! It was HP that started this.

PJ directing a Hobbit/LOTR bridge film in 3D would bring in like 2 billion dollars. Well played WB, well played.