Recently a fire engulfed Peter Jackson’s New Zealand workshop warehouse. The production set that had done work on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong and had done pre-production work on The Hobbit has been rendered a burned out hulk.
This incident is the latest in the snake-bitten pre-production of The Hobbit, which has endured the financial difficulties of MGM, the departure of director Guillermo Del Toro and even a boycott by local actors’ unions. Amazingly, filming may still begin early in 2011 if certain financing and rights issues are worked out, and the movie (which may reach $500 million in production cost) might release in 2012.
Source: Deadline
