After much speculation, rumour and set-backs, it could be that The Hobbit is actually going to start shooting in July. And how do we know? Cos Gandalf told us. Yeah. Put that in your elven bread and stab it to death with a big sword.

Nominations for BAFTA 2010 are in, and it’s a pretty mixed bag. Despite the much-hyped domination of James Cameron’s Avatar for a million trillion weeks running at the box office, the epic is sharing its lead position of eight nominations with two other films – acclaimed drama The Hurt Locker and 2009’s standout British work An Education.

James Cameron, director of blockbuster mega-hit Avatar, has confirmed that he wants to turn the franchise into a trilogy. To be fair, considering that the film has so far grossed $1.4 billion so far world-wide, financially the idea makes a lot of sense. But for those of us with devestating memories of diaster sequels that have tainted the memories of truly brilliant first films, we can’t help but be on our guard.

No doubt Lord of the Rings geeks worldwide already worship him as a god among men, but Peter Jackson will henceforth be known by a more concrete title – he’s been knighted in New Zealand’s latest New Year’s Honours list.

On December 11th, The Lovely Bones gets a limited release Stateside, with the full shebang rolling out a whole month later on the 15th. Over in the land of Blightly, we’ll get our fill of Peter Jackson’s latest a full six weeks later on January 29th, pretty much last in the world release queue. Not that we should feel maligned – the release date has been endlessly shunted about (it was originally slated for March 2008), ostensibly to ensure The Lovely Bones a spot on the Oscars shortlist.

If, like all of us, you spend most of your time wondering when you’ll finally get to see the new 3D Tintin film, we’re sorry to tell you that the wait..

CGI effects have revolutionised modern filmmaking to the extent that effects alone can make or break a movie. But is an over-reliance on CGI driving audiences away and cheapening the cinematic experience? We take a look at the computer generated revolution – and how the revolutionaries might soon find themselves in the firing line.