The Hobbit is coming, gird your ankles

Few things send my nerdly friends into a nerd frenzy (which looks like this):



like rumors about The Hobbit. Understandable, since the Lord of the Rings trilogy is like the Star Wars for this generation...oh, Jesus, does that mean The Hobbit is like The Phantom Menace? Relax, I kid...unless of course somebody finds a way to shove in a dwarf that speaks in racist pigeon English. The only actor fo' sho' gonna be in the new movie is Ian McKellan, and don't trust that dude with no secrets because he lives to flap his yapper. He told SciFi Wire that he's read the script, his role is great because it was written FOR HIM this time and not for just somebody playing Gandalf, that Bilbo hasn't been cast yet, that the script is pefect for Guillermo Del Toro's style...oh, and that it starts shooting in 5 months. Wait, what?! That means we should be REALLY, REALLY close to finding out who is going to play the titular Bilbo. Remember now, the first films didn't really rely heavily on big name actors. Viggo Mortenson wasn't who he is now before those films, same for Orlando Bloom, and even McKellan. There's a good chance it's going to be a mid-level name. Then again, when the first ones shot it was a huuuuuge time commitment with no suggestion of being Oscar-worthy and box-office-record-shattering. So, maybe they do get interest this time from big stars. No matter what, the good news is thus for fans of the Shire: we'll know everything in a few months.