Thanks to Ringer Alex for sending along this link today.

HONG KONG – One of Peter Jackson’s frequent collaborators says the “Lord of the Rings” director passed the torch to Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro to give the trilogy’s two-part prequel, “The Hobbit,” a fresh look.

After the huge success of the “Rings” series, Jackson is now working on adapting the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy novel that takes place before the trilogy. But this time the Oscar-winning New Zealand filmmaker is producing and working on the script, relinquishing directing duties to Del Toro, whose credits include “Pan’s Labyrinth” and the two “Hellboy” movies.

Read the full story at Yahoo.com. [Read More]

LOS ANGELES and AUCKLAND, New Zealand, March 5 /PRNewswire/ — Academy Award®-winning director Sir Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings) selected Andres Borghi from Argentina as winner of the 100% Pure New Zealand Presents Your Big Break (www.your-big-break.com) short film competition today. Borghi’s film, “Working Day,” will air on IFC just prior to the Film Independent Spirit Awards live broadcast on March 5 at 8 p.m. Pacific/11 p.m. Eastern. According to Jackson, “The standard of all five films was very high. Any of them deserve to win, but it came down to personal choice. (Working Day) stood out as a fresh and original piece of storytelling. This was an extremely accomplished piece and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for Andres’ future work.” More..

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!

Jack sends this in: Peter Jackson has joined other celebrities (including most of the cast from Lovely Bones) in signing paper hearts featuring Kermit the Frog, which are being auctioned off for charity. The proceeds will be going to Variety Kids. More..

Tom from dvdactive.com sends along news the Peter Jackons’s ‘The Lovely Bones’ will be out on DVD and Blu-ray on April 20th. More details: Paramount Home Entertainment has announced 1-disc DVD ($19.99) and 2-disc Blu-ray ($29.99) releases of The Lovely Bones for the 20th April. We have no word on any extra material for the 1-disc DVD – if anything is included we’ll let you know just as soon as we hear anything. The 2-disc Blu-ray however will include an extensive production diary in 15 segments hosted by Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens that follows the film’s shoot and post-production work on the visual effects. More..

Pre-Order the DVD on Amazon.com [Blu-ray]