The Hobbit is that one step closer to hitting our screens...

Drama, drama, drama! Not many movies go through this amount of drama and still get produced at the end of the day, but it seems that Peter Jackson's adaptation of JRR Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' has more than 9 lives.

A large group of the primary cast are already in New Zealand and posed for a photo after a press conference, with Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins) up front. Sadly, no Elijah in the group (but we do know that he is coming back as Frodo) or Orlando (he's not confirmed & his IMDB page still says 'rumored') and director Peter Jackson was on forced bed rest after surgery but was quoted as saying "I'd love to be with you all this morning, but I'm currently under a medical form of house arrest to prevent me from overdoing it, until fully recovered from my recent operation, I'll be jumping back into it very soon" No doubt he'll be needing the rest before throwing himself into the grueling schedule that will see them film the 2 films back to back.

Now that a filming schedule has been finalised, release dates have been tentatively set for 2012 & 2013.

Check out more casting info from E! here


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