When will we be put out of our misery? After months of rumours, scuffles, drop-outs and new additions we’re still no closer to knowing when The Hobbit will start shooting. If ever. The last we heard was that once Peter Jackson reluctantly agreed to helm the project, MGM’s money troubles set them back even more. So what’s the latest?

To be honest, it’s more of the same. The two part prequel to the Lord Of The Rings films is no closer to getting a start-date, but today Jackson assured his baying fan-hoardes that the team were –

“making progress untangling the MGM situation, so we should have certainty with The Hobbit sometime soon”.

“Have certainty” doesn’t exactly inspire us with much confidence; in fact it sounds like the whole thing could easily be shelved rather than pushed out. But, once again, we’ll have to wait and see. At least we’ll be getting a decision sooner rather than later. Maybe.

Is this one quest Middle Earth should abandon? Talk to us…