The Hobbit Filming Next Summer

So it begins again. Peter Jackson pulls on his epic hat once again and, according to reports all over the web today, his two film adaptation of The Hobbit will begin filming next summer.

Translating from German site MovieReporter.net, TheOneRing (via Empire) have Jackson commenting that the scripts are being finalised this month and, given the inevitable agreeing of the budget shooting returns to Bag End in the summer of 2010.

No studio would turn this project down, and the success of Jackson’s Rings Trilogy means we can look forward to another fantastical leap in Tolkein’s world when the first film is released in December 2011.

The decision to stretch The Hobbit to two films makes financial sense, and those with cynical minds may point to the similarly bisected Deathly Hallows, but Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro make a formidable team and these films are sure to highly anticipated until they hit the big screen.