A piece by Eric Snider details how MGM’s financial woes are delaying the production of the Peter Jackson produced Benicio Del Toro directed Hobbit movie. Jackson wrote the script and commented during the Lovely Bones release interviews it was finished. Fans await casting for Bilbo.

The London (UK) Telegraph interview Sir Peter Jackson, The New Zealand MFP. With a wealth of about $450 personal millions, Jackson has been busy. He says he may stop by the Hobbit to throw his hand in. He’s been making his Lovely Bones, to varied reviews. Jackson says he turned down having the nearby Wellington airport named after him, for fear his children would be traumatized walking through an airport named for their father.

Want a killer marathon of all your favorite LOTR films? If you happen to have all day Next Saturday, look no farther than Santa Monica for the ultimate movie experience, all 3 Jackson films in one day. Bring your lembas! The screenings for LOTR trifecta happen at the Aero theater at 1328 Montana Avenue at 14th Street in Santa Monica, CA.

Rumors, denials and heated counter denials have surrounded Hollywood the past few weeks, hobbit style. Informers and insiders have been trying to pin down who has been cast as Hobbit thief and dragon wrangler Bilbo in Sir Peter Jackson’s the Hobbit duo of new LOTR films. Jackson is casting the Hobbit now after completing the Lovely Bones now in theaters.

Del Toro and Jackson have a positive working relationship, where they will compromise on disagreements to the benefit of the film.[16] Del Toro believes he will be able to shoot all of the films himself,[38] although Jackson noted he had similar hopes for filming all of his trilogy, and has offered to help as second [...]

In the film LOTR series Jonathan Rhys-Davies was Gimli, Gloin’s son. But the character of Gloin for the Hobbit prequels won’t be played by the British actor. (from empire.uk)

“We were frankly amazed the footage was so well received.Jackson admitted he and his fellow filmmakers felt an enormous amount of pressure making LOTR because the studio, New Line, was in precarious financial shape and betting nearly $300 million on his movies ”

How much fun are you having doing the second script for The Hobbit films, since that’s the one you can kind of make up?
Peter: The second Hobbit script is still based on The Hobbit novel. The Hobbit novel is in two halves.
Q: Did you find a point to split the two films then?
Peter: Yeah, [...]

“The Lovely Bones” would seem to be an examination of how much more powerful/all seeing the Susie character might or might not be after death. Omniscience is a Jackson theme. Does Susie see that someone else’s number is up? That “The Lovely Bones” is a cathartic reworking of “the Frighteners” can’t only have occurred to me. The resonances are too strong.

To me, Jackson is like a child who had made so many cinematic mud pies they can’t help turning out a perfect chocolate glace bombe according to recipe, because after all that chaos it’s simply diverting to follow the recipe of auteurial and directorial filmmaking after so many years of unbridled slasher pics. And Jackson has his assistant chefs to bat cleanup when the mixing and stirring gets to be out of hand.