For those Tolkien fans who may have missed the announcement!
Peter Jackson has won the battle for Middle-earth and is to make The Hobbit.
The Oscar-winning Wellington film-maker and Hollywood studios New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios announced today that they had resolved their legal dispute. Jackson and partner Fran Walsh will serve as executive producers on two Hobbit movies.
Pre-production will begin as soon as possible and both will be shot simultaneously, tentatively in 2009. The Hobbit is likely to be released in 2010 and the sequel in 2011.
Huh!?!? Two Hobbit movies?
Critics and audiences cited New Zealand’s scenery – a major component in The Lord of the Rings – as one of the main reasons for the films’ popularity. Equally popular were the Oscar-winning effects created by Wellington’s Weta Workshop and Weta Digital.
For those can’t wait until 2010 and who need a more regular fix you can check out:
There are already a couple of hundred comments and speculation.
Smaug Alert!
I wonder if the reason for two books is to include some of _The Hobbit’s_ background story… What happened to the dwarves, why Smaug came, what is in the lair that’s so important, who the Necromancer really is…?
Remember the dwarves’ treasure included one of The Seven. That would tie things in with _The Lord of the Rings_ on a different level. We are also introduced to Sauron here, though we don’t know that until LOTR.