Guillermo del Toro has given the thumbs-up to Peter Jackson directing the Hobbit, and will instead direct Mountains of Madness – a 3D film epic featuring Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos with James Cameron as producer. Unnameable horrors are safe in del Toro’s hands…

How do you tell a tale about the grisly rape and murder of a 14 year-old girl, whilst making sure it can be released a PG? By getting rid of that pesky rape and muder part, of course! Peter Jackson’s take on Alice Sebold’s novel is certainly beautiful to look at, but it has to be asked, is that really the point?

When published in 2002 The Lovely Bones was an instant success, climbing to top of the UK as well as US book charts. So how do you tell a tale about the grizzly rape and murder of a 14 year-old girl onscreen, whilst making sure it can be released a PG? By getting rid of that pesky rape and muder part, of course! Peter Jackson’s take on Alice Sebold’s novel is certainly beautiful to look at, but it has to be asked, is that really the point?

British actress Kate Madison is such a massive fan of the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy that she spent six years and her life-savings making a prequel, a film entitled Born Of Hope.The film cost £25,000 to make, mere pocket change in comparison to Peter Jackson’s $200 million budget, and rather than trekking to New Zealand to make it, she filmed the entire thing in East Anglia.

Produced by Sir Peter Jackson of Mordor and directed by talented newcomer Neill Blomkamp, District 9 is a smart, slick sci-fi thriller that tries to hit all the buttons and almost – almost – succeeds. The film concerns the attempts of corrupt corporation MNU’s attempts to evict the stranded aliens – derogatively referred to as “prawns” – from a slum in the centre of town to a concentration camp far away from the dismissive human populace.

Despite the considerable hype surrounding it, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit is still yet to be green-lit by a studio, with reports now suggesting filming won’t get off the ground till summer 2010 at the earliest.

AMAZING

It’s that time of year again! As the seasons turn, our adamant gaze pierces the mists of the future to tell you what you should be seeing next year. And, as usual, it’s mostly superheroes (not our fault the interesting little indie films don’t publicise themselves a year in advance, is it?). This year’s list is in order of release rather than assumed quality, because we keep putting crap films in the top 5 and then regretting it.

While his uncle (Karl Urban) and sister (Angourie Rice) head off to dig up a fossilised Gorgosaurus, Ricky (Charlie Rowe) — whose childhood fascination with dinosaurs has since given way to video games and music — remains with the car. When he is approached by a talking Alexornis called Alex (John Leguizamo), however, he is…

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a horrendous mishmash of CGI-dependent action sequences and poorly-paced unconvincing drama; but rather like a dwarf in a river-borne barrel, it bobs along rather nicely. Also like a dwarf, it carries quite a lot of extra flab around the middle, but its unassailable charisma and magnificent facial hair…