'The Hobbit' still waiting for the green light

[Oddwen]

Here's another tidbit from ComicCon

Jackson and co-authors have successfully pitched The Hobbit as two movies, both of which Guillermo Del Toro will co-write and direct. They are about 3 weeks away from finishing a draft of the script for the first movie, and at that point they will start to think about casting. Jackson insisted that nobody has been cast, and indeed nobody has even been contacted about casting. Based on the timetable he gave us, it sounds like you'll start hearing about real casting in a couple of months. What will The Hobbit be like? They are diverging from the books a bit to give Gandalf more backstory with the Necromancer. So they are adding to it, but not taking away. Jackson assured us that all 13 dwarves will be in the story, and they will stick as closely as possible to the original events of the book.

[Morsul the Dark]

any ideas on the office locations of the studios that are looking at the Hobbit?

[Tuor in Gondolin]

They are diverging from the books a bit to give Gandalf more backstory with the Necromancer. So they are adding to it, but not taking away. Jackson assured us that all 13 dwarves will be in the story, and they will stick as closely as possible to the original events of the book.

That's a reasonable change. But after some of PJ's "liberties" with LOTR
I'm rather skeptical. Presumably Elrond, Galadriel, and Saruman will be
worked in (will Christopher Lee still be too ticked off with his character's
treatment to reprise his role?). And, of course, he could age Aragorn about
10 years to have Arwen and Aragorn appear.

And most important, what will his Hitchcockish cameos be?
One of the Master of Laketown's lackeys?