Jack over at the Noldor Blog is reporting rumours about a film location in Upper Hutt’s Harcourt Park, possibly near the old Isengard location. This is just outside of Wellington. Read More

December 2, 2009 – We’ve already reported that The Hobbit, the Peter Jackson-produced follow-up to The Lord of the Rings, has been pushed back a few months and won’t start filming until the middle of next summer. But what does that mean for the DVD and Blu-ray release dates? According to Blu-ray.com, it means we shouldn’t expect to see it on our home-theater systems until at least 2012.

This is the second blow in recent months for Tolkien fans, following the announcement in September that the highly anticipated Blu-ray release of Lord of the Rings has been postponed until further notice (most likely timed to coincide with the eventual theatrical release of The Hobbit). More..

I was recently invited to do a podcast with the guys from JoBlo.com. These guys are hardcore movie fans after my own heart and I had a blast chatting with them, take a listen! From Joblo.com: If you’ve ever looked for something on the internet related to the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy you’ve probably ended up on our guest’s website. TheOneRing.net’s Editor in Chief and founder, Michael Regina joins Moreno and I to talk about the site, dish out some juicy HOBBIT info, and let us know how he’s planning on macking Jenna Busch. Strong language warning here! More..

Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson has confirmed the first script for the two films based on JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit has been completed. Pan’s Labyrinth helmer Guillermo del Toro is to bring the novel to the screen while Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens will co-write and produce the films, having won 17 Oscars for the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. “The Hobbit will be two movies and we’ve written the first script and delivered it to the studio who seem to be happy with it,” the New Zealander told reporters. “We’re now halfway through the second script and Philippa, Fran, Guillermo and myself are doing the scripts and having great fun.”

You can read the entire article at inthenews.co.uk

An apparent slip by Dept. of Conservation staff seems to confirm what we pretty much expected, that some of The Hobbit would be filmed around the same Queenstown/Lakes area as The Lord of the Rings. Lake Wakatipu is the Z-shaped lake that Queenstown sits beside. Thanks to Muz for the link! More

Latauro (via epleterte) from Australia chimed in to Aintitcoolnews today about a potential casting decision in The Hobbit production. Although nothing is sure, Brian Cox seems to be a strong contender to one of the dwarves. And for what my two cents are worth: That’d be awesome! Brian Cox is beyond cool. Here’s the excerpt:

This is a news item I’d love to proclaim with all-out certainty, but my tried and trusted source(s) aren’t sure if this is a total lock, or whether it’s just someone they’re seriously interested in. Either way, producers of THE HOBBIT have begun looking at casting for the dwarves (dwarfs?), and one name has emerged as a major contender: Brian Cox. He’s a brilliant choice for the role: physically, he fits with the depiction of the the race in LOTR (well, Gimli), and he’s a born Scotsman. Also, he could yell at Galadriel for adding narration. So there you go. If this comes to fruition, you heard it here first!

Brian’s name has been mentioned before, in April we announced he was voicing he audio version of ‘Sigurd and Gudrun’. We also mentioned he was a strong frontrunner in fan casting for Balin.

Vic from Red Carpet Tours sends in this litte nugget of information he heard down in New Zeland: “Rumour has it that the first six months of filming in 2010 will take place in the studio.” Truth or rumour? Time will tell!

What exactly is going on with the two-part adaptation of The Hobbit? The world seems to be holding its breath in anticipation, including us, but as the calendar turned to November, we turned to a trusted rock-solid inside source and found a dragon’s treasure of updates. Read the rest of this entry »

Sir Ian Mckellen is enjoying a relaxing holiday before throwing himself into filming The Hobbit – because it’s the first time he’s taken a break in his entire career. The veteran actor celebrated his 70th birthday in May and admits reaching the landmark age prompted him to slow down his hectic filming schedule and take some time to himself.

He says, “I’m in the middle of a holiday. I’m not working at the moment and it means I can do lovely things. It’s a change for me because, for the first 50 years of my life, I just worked and worked and worked and I didn’t feel happy unless I knew what the next job was going to be. And then I hit 70 this year and I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to have a little bit of downtime for myself.’” More..