Hobbit delayed by a year?

[Mister Underhill]

Narnia To Take Off With Fox

Following Disney's decision not to co-finance the next Chronicles of Narnia feature, 20th Century Fox said Wednesday that it plans to partner with Walden Media to make the movie. Daily Variety reported today (Thursday) that the film, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, will have a production budget of $140 million -- far less than the $215 million that last year's Prince Caspian cost. Nevertheless, the Los Angeles Times commented today that while the budget is much lower than Caspian, "it's still a big gamble." But Variety observed, "Dawn Treader is "considered to be a more family film-friendly book, and the goal is to get back to the magical aspects present in the first Narnia pic[ture] but mostly absent from Prince Caspian."

Also, I heard that Spielberg finally forged a deal to get the first Tintin movie going.

Actually I wonder if a bit of a budget crunch for The Hobbit might not be a good thing. Filmmakers often do their best work when they're forced to get creative to solve problems instead of just aiming the money hose at them.