Seems like MGM are clinging on to TH like grim death - even letting Bond go hang
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/03...risis-hit.html but... wanting to get it done isn't the same thing as actually getting it done ("It is easier to
shout stop than to do it" as someone once said. There isn't money out there to throw at movie making & its not certain that an 'adult' Hobbit (ie one aimed at the same audience as the LotR movies) would work - Tolkien tried rewriting TH in 1960 in the style of LotR & gave up after a couple of chapters. A more adult TH risks sacrificing the charm of the original & replacing it with a lot of (3D) sfx.
Add to that the chunk of money New Line has recently had to pay out to the Tolkien Trust for its creative accounting scam on the LotR movies (my thread here
http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=16566) - which may or may not be a one-off payment to the Trust - & I'd say it wasn't all that certain we'll see a TH movie in the very near future (I seriously doubt 2012 is likely now).