From an email conversation with Del Toro's casting director, Jeremy Zimmerman:

'I met today Jeremy Zimmerman, who has done the casting for Guillermo Del Toro’s four films. He’s known Del Toro four six years and says they are 'mates'. I asked him if Del Toro will direct The Hobbit. He was a bit taken back, almost surprised that I would even ask. " ( Read more... )

"iF: Do you hope to be scoring THE HOBBIT for Peter?

SHORE: Yes, of course. The book is wonderful and I’ve dreamed of writing music for it."

complete interview HERE

-IF magazine

"I think what happens very often is that these rumours have a way of becoming real or not. I don’t expect The Hobbit to be troublesome. But you know, then again, it may never happen… or it may!" -Del Torro

-Total Film

"I haven’t spoken to him directly about it [but] I’ve e-mailed him, and as far as I know the two films that they’re doing, one will be ‘The Hobbit’ and another will take place between the 60 years that happened between ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings,’” the once and future Frodo enthused to MTV News, possibly confirming rumors that the ( Read more... )

'Q: What did you think about the recent news that Peter Jackson is going ahead and producing the Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit?

Urban: Oh, I think that it's really fantastic that New Line and Peter were able to put aside their differences and that Peter is going to once again bring Middle Earth to the big screen.

Q: A lot of our readers ( Read more... )

'Lee not only has impressive knowledge of golf and film, he also in something of an expert on the work of J.R.R. Tolkien ( Read more... )

'Noting that it was recently announced that Peter Jackson had agreed to film a couple of prequels about "The Hobbit," Lee said he hoped that "Mr. Jackson" might found a place for him in those movies.

"I don’t know if that will happen but I would certainly be interested in doing it," Lee said. '

read the full article HERE

-Pop Matters

'Folks - the strong word from my embedded sources at Weta is that Peter Jackson will play host to key insider people for a rather large scale discussion on what 3D options to elect for "The Hobbit" Part 1 & Part 2 and the original "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. No date for the meeting is known yet, but the personel are being lined up as you read this ( Read more... )

Sir Ian McKellen recently recorded an interview, which you can download here. In it, he expresses his desire to work on ‘The Hobbit’.

'We took a look at some of the bigger roles available and picked our favorites. Following Jackson's casting decisions for "Lord of the Rings," we considered names that were known, but not necessarily big stars. Check out our choices below and then head over to the MTV movies blog where we tackle the big one.'

( Casting - SPOILER ALERT! )