Delayed Green

Peter Jackson confirmed to Moviefone that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's problems will impact the 2 Part film adaptation of The Hobbit.

Asked about the delay in filming until the end of the year, "Well, it's not really been delayed, because we've never announced the date," he said. "I mean, it's sort of interesting because the studio has never greenlit 'The Hobbit,' so therefore 'The Hobbit' has never been officially announced as a 'go' project, nor have we ever announced a date."

Casting can't begin until the green light has been given, something that likely won't happen until MGM been purchased or undergone a major restructuring in some way.

Jackson and his co-writers have just finished the second film's script. The director/producer tells the site "We've just delivered the script. Literally last week, we delivered the second of the two screenplays -- the first draft. So the studio's got both scripts now, which is a milestone; and if anything was holding it up, it was us doing the screenplays, because we'd just been writing as fast as we can, but it took us this long to get them finished. So we take whatever responsibility there is for the speed."

Jackson adds "we're now in the process of budgeting the films, and then hopefully we'll get to a budget the studio [suits] are happy with, and they'll greenlight the movies and we'll announce the shooting dates. I'd be pretty optimistic that we'll be shooting before the end of the year. I would imagine October, November, we'd be shooting by. I'm not announcing it, though."