McKellen Updates Hobbit Status

While at the San Sebastian Film Festival, Sir Ian McKellen provided an update on the status of The Hobbit films. The main bit of news is BOTH scripts for the movies are near completion indicating that Peter Jackson and company have every intention of filming both movies at the same time much like he did the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

From Empire:

“The scripts for the two films will be delivered very soon,” he revealed. “Then they'll be budgeted, and then they'll be cast. And they'll be going when they've always said they would be, which is next spring – March or April. Guillermo even told me at one point, 'We're going to film for 383 days.' He's got that artistic autism! Jackson's the same; they're very, very, very alike. They also very different, but they've so much in common. They both can't stand Hollywood and have wonderful imaginations, and they're both obsessed with gore and fantasy. Both of them laugh a great deal. Guillermo's one of the most brilliant men I've ever met. His English vocabulary is way superior to mine!”

"Unforunately, there won’t be many of the actors going back,” he said, “unless they’re going to put masks on and be disguised as dwarves! Andy Serkis is, at the moment, I think, the only other actor who’s doing this film.”