THE HOBBIT NEWS

Peter Jackson Says 'The Hobbit' Still Waiting for the Greenlight

by Alex Billington
April 17, 2010
Source: Moviefone

I feel like every few weeks we write another story about The Hobbit being either delayed, or still on track for 2011, or something like that. It's always either ready to go sometime this year or suddenly delayed, but apparently none of this is true, at all. Peter Jackson spoke recently with Moviefone in what has become the story of this weekend because he gives them the definitive update on The Hobbit and its current status. Basically, they still haven't been given the greenlight because they're still waiting for MGM and finishing budgeting. Who knows how long that will take, so although they've turned in a script, they're still waiting.

Here's where Jackson says that pretty much everything we've heard about delays is pretty much BS so far.

"Well, it's not really been delayed, because we've never announced the date. I mean it's sort of interesting because the studio [MGM] has never greenlit The Hobbit, so therefore The Hobbit has never been officially announced as a 'go' project, nor have we ever announced a date. But there's so much interest that people -- newspapers and magazines, of their own account, say, ah, it's likely to film in May, it's likely to film in June, it's likely to film in September. People make this stuff up. And then if it's not filming in June, you get a story saying, 'The Hobbit's been delayed.' But it's never actually been announced."

So there's not much he can tell us about the production, but what can he actually confirm? Well, the script is done. "We've just delivered the script. Literally last week, we delivered the second of the two screenplays -- the first draft. So the studio's got both scripts now, which is a milestone; and if anything was holding it up, it was us doing the screenplays, because we'd just been writing as fast as we can, but it took us this long to get them finished." They're currently trying to work on budgeting and if they agree to the budget, they'll get a greenlight and announce shooting dates and so on. But here's the good news: "I'd be pretty optimistic that we'll be shooting before the end of the year. I would imagine October, November, we'd be shooting by."

Of course, that's not official, but if everything goes as planned, they'll be shooting by the end of the year. The question is, if they're supposed to shoot for more than a year, how will they finish the first movie by the end of 2011? Just doesn't seem possible, but you never know, they could pull off that kind of schedule. Anyway, head over to Moviefone to read a few more of Jackson's answers about casting, mainly that no actors have been "confirmed," although we just know Sir Ian McKellen will be back as Gandalf. We'll be sure to keep you updated on everything we hear about The Hobbit. I just hope there won't be more fake rumors that pop up.

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