The Production Weekly twitter feed has become a veritable fountain of project confirmations, and following Monday’s Thing prequel tweet, we now have a schedule for The Hobbit…
“Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is due to begin a 14 month production schedule this June in New Zealand.”
This is in line with what Jackson was last caught saying, and indicates no delay as of yet. The year-and-change schedule is accommodating a shoot for both films with the first currently set to be released, per-LOTR tradition, in December 2011, with the second coming a year later.
There’s no way to be sure how the filming will break down and allow for post-production work on the first film to begin (that is certainly going to require more than two months), so if we have to wait an extra year, or if The Hobbit is suddenly going to become a summer film, we’ll find out soon enough.