Hobbit panelists at DragonCon 2009

As promised, here is some of the latest Hobbit movie information we have been able to get.  Sunday afternoon I attended at panel presented by the folks at The One Ring.net.  The information we got is this…

First of all, the Hobbit movie(s) haven’t been given the green light yet.  What does that mean?  That means that the movie doesn’t have any official backing yet.  Even without the green light, a  lot of prep work is going on right now.  The Hobbiton area of New Zealand is being regroomed in preparation for shooting that may start next spring.  The actors we know that have signed on for the film are: Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) and  Andy Serkis (Gollum/Smeagol).  According to sources the role of Bilbo is still not yet decided on, but the front runners include Simon Pegg (Shaun of The Dead, Star Trek) and Martin Freeman (Love Actually, Hitchiker’s Guide).  The whispers of Tom Cruise meeting with PJ in New Zealand are true, but nothing about him having a role in the film has been confirmed. 

As alluded to earlier, the movie will actually be two films.  Possible release dates for the films are December 2011 and December 2012.  It would be quite fortuitous to release the first of the two 10 years after the release of Lord of The Rings.  In soundtrack news, Howard Shore has signed on once more to compose and conduct the soundtracks for the films.  It’s appropriate that he would do this as they are trying to maintain the same feel we had with the original Lord of The Rings movies.

The writing team is busy working on the scripts for the movie and meet regularly with Guillermo del Toro  (Pan’s Labryinth, Hellboy) to go over the script and tweak things.  del Toro has moved his whole family to NZ at this time in order to be closer to PJ and his team.  In addition to the writing and music goings-on, there is another choice still to be made.  The art direction is in the process of being decided.  Of course the usual suspects of Alan Lee and John Howe will be a part of the team, but there are several other notable artists that are being looked at as well.

All in all, lots of interesting news from the front lines of The Hobbit.  Thanks to the folks at ToRN for allowing us all access to their brains at the Con! 

More updates coming soon…