The Hobbit, officially the most unlucky production ever (apart from the Spiderman musical, which is apparently crap as well as cursed) has finally been given a start date.

Filming will begin on 21 March in Miramar, Wellington, giving Peter Jackson a comfortable couple of months to get over his perforated ulcer and develop stress-induced haemorrhoids instead.

That’s all we’ve got, to be honest – it’s just that it increasingly seems to be worth reporting the most insignificant Hobbit news in case things change tomorrow. Anything could happen. Martin Freeman could kill a man.