on May 31st, 2011 | NEWS

The first of the Peter Jackson-directed installments will be called The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and Warner Bros will release the film Dec. 14, 2012. The second installment, The Hobbit: There And Back Again, will be released a year later, on Dec. 13, 2013. The films revolve around the adventures of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), and his efforts to thwart the fearsome dragon Smaug. I’d heard way back when that Jackson was eyeing Bill Nighy to provide the voice of the dragon, but Jackson hasn’t yet announced who he got, and I’m told the whole thing is being kept under lockdown. Jackson has brought back from The Lord of the Rings such cast members as Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis,Christopher Lee and Hugo Weaving. The other unanswered question is, since Jackson is shooting the Hobbit films in 3D, will New Line owner Warner Bros convert the original Lotr franchise into 3D format?

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