Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson has given some insight into a few nagging issue regarding the upcoming two-part epic, The Hobbit.

Peter Jackson was in London Tuesday night for the Royal gala premiere for The Lovely Bones. The film, (whose official release is on January 15, 2010) is based on the hugely popular Alice Sebold novel about a murdered teenage girl whose spirit remains as she watches her family deal with the aftermath of her death and a possible reckoning with her own killer. However, don't be so quick to bring the Kleenex just yet. It's actually kind of like Bill Cosby's Ghost Dad meets Steven Seagal's Hard to Kill. "Lovely Bones" (which is what we shall call her instead of character name, Susie) is back from the dead and taking the law into her own hands! No more school, no more tests, this time she's only out to blow s**t UP!!

...Okay, maybe that wasn't an accurate description of the film. (Although a movie with "Lovely Bones" decimating and entire army of Columbian drug-lords with a minigun would be one that I'd go see.) Getting back to what's germane, Jackson was able to field some Hobbit-related questions at the London premiere gala. As a result, we've learned a few things.

1. The Hobbit will NOT be filmed in 3-D.

This was very old rumor that seemed to show its face in Hobbit news time and time again. After much speculation, Peter Jackson squelched the idea definitively when he stated:

"The Hobbit will not be filmed in 3D, despite the current vogue for the technology in the movie industry." Adding. "Guillermo wants to shoot in 35mm, old-fashioned film, which suits me, because he wants to keep it in the same space as the original trilogy".

Jackson, in stating his own views on the current resurgence of 3-D adds that it "only adds to the experience." Further adding: "The only thing I get annoyed about is the image being a little dull. It does feel like you're looking at the movie with sunglasses on. But literally, that could just be about getting brighter bulbs in the projectors."

2. The style of the films will be consistent with LOTR.

According to Jackson, "We're writing the screenplays with him (del Toro), so in terms of the script, there is continuity." The word "continuity" seems to be a key word when discussing the way Guillermo del Toro will direct The Hobbit in contrast to Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Films like Pan's Labyrinth and the two Hellboy movies, probably the most prominent standouts on del Toro's resume, carry a very dark, borderline morbid tone. It seems that Jackson and del Toro are in agreement that the tone of these prequel films need to match Jackson's legendary trilogy. (Insert George Lucas joke.)

This is somewhat contrary to past interviews in which del Toro seemed to suggest that the films would carry a distinct, somewhat darker tone. However, I would still expect some compromises to distinguish these films.

3. The script process is coming along.

Updating fans on the current state of the film, Jackson revealed that he spends his time scouting filming locations in New Zealand, while working on the second draft of the Hobbit script with his Lord of the Rings team, wife, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, along with (as mentioned,) del Toro. 

"We're writing Ian McKellen's dialogue just the same as we did in Lord Of The Rings. But Guillermo, being the director, will obviously take the script and interpret that and shoot his film. So that'll be interesting to see." Adding. "That's actually the reason I wanted him to do it. I felt like I'd be trying to compete with myself and deliberately do things differently, which is not the way I want to work. I want it to be natural."

It's all coming together, folks! No legal (or creative) drama should stand in the way of making this project happen. The first part of The Hobbit is tentatively set for December of 2011 (just TWO YEARS away!) with the second part set for December of 2012. (Unless, of course, Roland Emmerich and "the Mayans" are right.)

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