Rumors The Hobbit might be filmed in 3-D have been around for some time and dismissed often by Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson .  Even last fall, del Toro stated on the TORN message boards:

“As a co-writer and director of this film … let me be very clear one more time: we are not talking about 3D, we are NOT writing the screenplay for 3D right now.

However, he did add this caveat:

If after “Avatar” the market may change and demands are put upon us, etc that is in the future. But if such things happen and we start discussing 3D down the line, I’ll let it be know here at TORN because that’s the proper way of doing things.

True to his word, del Toro has now added an update via the TORN forum:

I wouldn’t read much on it just yet, but now, after all this time, after AVATAR doing the Box Office it did, we have had enquires from above about The Hobbit being in 3-D. No impositions or heavy leaning. Just enquires. Just fulfilling my promise to let you all know if discussions ever started.  Cheers, GDT

So while there is no confirmation on filming in 3-D, there is certainly discussions under way.  Add your comments to the TORN forums here!