Guillermo del Toro and Peter JacksonFrodo Franchise‘ author, Kristin Thompson, points us to Variety.com today with further official word that our favorite scribes have all signed on the dotted line, so to speak:

Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens have officially signed on to collaborate on “The Hobbit” and its sequel with director Guillermo del Toro. The announcement, from exec producers Jackson and Walsh and New Line president Toby Emmerich, came four months after del Toro confirmed he had signed on to direct both pics.

Read the full article at Variety.com and strap on your seatbelts – the funs is just getting started! [Variety.com]

Jackson del Toro

Ringer Deej found this article on EW.Com:

It’s now official: The Lord of the Rings screenwriting team of Peter Jackson (pictured), Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens will join The Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro to pen the screenplay for the two planned Hobbit movies. Sources tell EW.com that the scribes’ deals are all complete and they will commence writing shortly. (With shooting scheduled to begin in Fall 2009 in New Zealand, the quartet better get busy!) The Hobbit will center on Frodo’s uncle, Bilbo Baggins, and his initial discovery of the immensely-powerful ring. New Line and MGM plan to release the two films Christmas 2011 and Christmas 2012.

Post your comments on the TORN Forum – it’s an exciting day for Hobbit fans!  Thanks again to ringer Deej for posting this on our boards.  EW.Com

Some news on the funding behind the upcoming ‘Hobbit’ films from Bloomberg.com:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., the movie studio controlled by private-equity firms, is raising as much as $600 million to produce some of its biggest films including “The Hobbit.” […] MGM’s would be the first movie fund completed since Deutsche Bank AG and Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures scrapped plans last month to raise $450 million. The MGM fund includes “The Hobbit,” being produced by “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson […] ”The Hobbit,” being directed by Guillermo del Toro, is scheduled for release in December 2011. Jackson’s three “Lord of the Rings” movies, distributed by New York-based Time Warner, each cost about $95 million to make, according to Imdb.com.

Thanks to Diedye for the heads up on the article and click on the link to read the full story. [Bloomberg]

Gollum / SmeagolThere is a great article posted at IGN today that summarizes what we already knew about Guillermo del Toro’s intention to use more animatronics in the creation of the ‘Hobbit’ films. But Ringer Elven points out one small bit of information of which we did not have previous confirmation:

We naturally enquired if he planned on continuing with a CG Gollum: “Absolutely. I think that it worked perfectly on the [Lord of the Rings] trilogy and if it ain’t broke, why fix it?”

Gotta love the ‘Why fix it?’ attitude! Read the full article and discuss in our forums! [IGN]

Chen Yibing

While perusing the official website of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, a particular winner just happened to catch our eye:

So to what has become a daily glut of gold medals for host China. The place to start has to be gymnastics, where 23-year-old Chen Yibing, the co-called “Lord of The Rings,” won China’s first gold medal in the Men’s Rings since the legendary Li Ning shared gold with Japan’s Gushiken Koji at Los Angeles 1984. Chen scored 16.600 to win.

Just thought it was wonderful to see Professor Tolkien’s creation mentioned in a way that reminds us all of it’s place within a worldwide community culture.  It continues today due also in no small part to Peter Jackson’s movies and fan websites like TORN that have readers spanning the globe.  Official Website 2008 Beijing Olympic Games