Britain has made huge advances on LGBT rights since Roy Jenkins decriminalised adult, consensual male homosexuality in 1967. But there is still much progress to be made in several other EU member states, both at the governmental and popular level. And things are still dire in several of the EU's near neighbours, including Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Turkey -- all specifically highlighted by members of the large Amnesty International contingent on today's London Pride parade.

Nick Clegg made what was reportedy an excellent speech at the concluding rally in Trafalgar Square. As I was helping to man the DELGA stall, right up against the National Gallery, at the time, I couldn't actually hear it, so I look forward to the press release. It has to be said, though, that the loudest cheers were for my Tower Hamlets neighbour, the actor Sir Ian McKellen. Oh, and a bevvy of behived, transvestite Amy Winehouse look-alikes.

So whilst first X-Men spin-off, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, is deep into production, news on the often mooted X-Men Origins: Magneto has been very quiet, personally I think it's a very hard story to tell as Magneto is not a hero and doesn't inspire the same interest as Wolverine does, in fact a full length film solely based around him is a big gamble for any studio. But news has emerged concerning a David Goyer script doing the rounds and reveals a number of plot details, suggesting the film is closer to being made than expected. It concerns Magneto hunting down a number of Nazi type villains, i won't say any more as it is potentially full of spoilers, however look here if you wish to read more...

If Wolverine is a hit, which is highly likely, I think we could expect to see Magneto sometime in 2010/2011, It's neither been confirmed or denied that Ian Mckellen will return though with his commitments to The Hobbit and its sequel, and the fact that Magneto is set in the earlier years of that characters life its looking unlikely.

AMC and ITV are working on an updated version of "The Prisoner," the 1960s series starring Patrick McGoohan that served as a metaphor for Cold War paranoia. The remake, scheduled for some time in 2009, will star Ian McKellen as Number Two and Jim Caviezel as Number Six. (Variety 6/30)

Beginning Aug. 6, Spike TV will premiere "Real Vice Cops Uncut," a reality series from Associated Television International. The show follows real-life officers as they take down narcotics, prostitution and gambling operations and, according to Jim Romanovich, president of worldwide media and entertainment for ATI, lacks the pastel hues and Porches of "Miami Vice": "This is not Crockett and Tubbs," he said. (Broadcasting & Cable 6/30)

Charter Communications is rolling out its High-Speed Internet Max offering in its Michigan service area. The service boasts download speeds of up to 16 Mbps and, according to comScore, is faster than similar products offered by AT&T, Qwest and Verizon in service areas covered by Charter. (Multichannel News 6/30)

Native American comic books for your delectation.

Here's an interview with Liz Phair.

Jim DeRogatis relays his experience of seeing The Feelies.

Jay Reatard gets a storming review.

Here's a taste test on Drank, the anti-energy drink.

Interview with Silver Jews' David Berman here.

Jesus and Gandalf will star in the remake of The Prisoner.

A Christian record from Heidi Montag...

Bowie talks Bowie songs.

Alex Ross discusses the Chinese music boom.

Big love for Adele on PopMatters.

Could Gok Wan be the fashion answer to Clarkson?

Should Robin come into the Nolan-era Batman?

Eddie Murphy not only won't do the new Beverly Hills Cop, he also will quit movies!!!

Post-Happening, Wahlberg talks up Departed seq/prequels.

Tati's Trafic has reached DVD through Criterion.

The Guitar Hero: Aerosmith track-listing has turned up.

Zach de la Rocha is on his way back.

"Where am I?"
"In the Village."
"What do you want?"
"Information."
"Whose side are you on?"
"That would be telling…. We want information. Information! INFORMATION!"
"You won't get it."
"By hook or by crook, we will."
"Who are you?"
"The new Number Two."
"Who is Number One?"
"You are Number Six."
"I am not a number — I am a free man!"

That cryptic exchange set the stage for one of the trippiest, most original television series ever aired--The Prisoner. Forget Lost, if you want to spend an hour having your mind totally blown, go rustle up an episode of this 1960s cult classic.

Or, apparently, you can just wait for the remake. After a few bumps in the road, AMC's six-part miniseries, to be co-produced with ITV, is back on track with Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen headlining.

Caviezel will step into Patrick McGoohan's shoes as Number Six, a man who wakes up in a mysterious town after abruptly resigning from his position as a British secret agent. McKellen will fill the role of Number Two, the administrator of the Village charged with extracting information from Number Six. (In McGoohan's original, the position of Number Two was assigned to a constantly-rotating series of characters.)

While the original series, which lasted for only 17 episodes in 1967-68, served as a metaphor for Cold War politics, the reinterpretation will reflect 21st Century concerns about liberty, security, and surveillance. The trademark paranoia, tense action and socio-political commentary seen in the original will remain key elements of the remake, according to AMC.

"There will be nods and winks and references back to the original," said executive producer Christina Wayne, "but I don't think that (fans) will feel in any way that their original has been tarnished."

AMC, responsables del proyecto, tienen la intención de crear esta vez la paranoia alrededor de componentes del miedo moderno como el terrorismo, la retricción de las libertades, la invasión de la intimidad... En su momento, la serie original de 1967 explotó los sentimientos de sus espectadores hacia la Guerra Fría.

En The Prisoner, Caviezel será Número 6, un agente que tras dejar su puesto, es secuestrado por su ex-agencia debido a la información vital que conoce. El espía será enviado a una peculiar isla donde será sometido a todo tipo de extrañas pruebas para sonsacarle información. Su meta será escapar a cualquier precio.

Además de esta miniserie que veremos en 2.009, es conocido que el director Chistopher Nolan tiene un gran interés en adaptar la historia al cine.

Max (CLIVE OWEN) is a carefree playboy who lives the high life of the promiscuous Berlin nightclubs of Nazi Germany. Although he lives with his lover, Rudy (BRIAN WEBBER), a dancer in the cabaret, he has a fling with a German soldier at a swinging nightclub where the androgynous Greta (MICK JAGGER) performs. Soon, however, the Nazis crack down on homosexual activity, and Max and Rudy go on the run. Max hopes his Uncle Freddie (SIR IAN MCKELLEN) can make a deal that will get them to Amsterdam, but they're captured before that happens. The two are then transported along with other gay men to Dachau. Along the way, however, the soldiers torture Rudy, and Horst (LOTHAIRE BLUTEAU), a fellow prisoner, tells Max he must forget Rudy, act straight, and toughen his emotions to survive. Once at Dachau, the gay men are given pink triangles -- symbols of their "lower class," while Max, who convinced the officers he's straight, wears just a Star of David. "Sentenced" to hard labor, Max must overcome the tedious and harsh work conditions where he's forced to move rocks back and forth from one pile to the next and then back again.

Desperate for companionship, he bribes an officer to have Horst transferred to his work detail. Initially upset that he's moving rocks for no reason, Horst eventually bonds with Max and the two fall for each other, although they can't touch or display their true emotions. As their bond grows stronger as the months pass -- and is the only thing that allows them to survive -- they run the risk of harsh and even deadly repercussions if the Nazis' learn of their secret.

cast:

Clive Owen as Max
Lothaire Bluteau as Horst
Ian McKellen as Uncle Freddie
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Wolf (as Nikolaj Waldau)
Mick Jagger as Greta / George
Brian Webber as Rudy
Jude Law as Stormtrooper
Gresby Nash as Waiter
Suzanne Bertish as Half-woman, half-man
David Meyer as Gestapo man
Stefan Marling as SS Captain
Richard Laing as SS guard
Crispian Belfrage as SS guard
Johanna Kirby as Muttering woman
David Phelan as Fluff in park

---

A very very gloomy and dark movie, if you like angst, then I'm sure that you will like this movie. There are a lot of scene that needed some thought before you could actually grasp what it meant.

All in all, this movie is good, and I'd like to categorize this as a psychological kind of movie :)

best quote:

Max: I love you... What's wrong with that?

trailer:

5*s

How on earth can I describe Stardust!? A star studded film, Ian Mckellen narrates, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Sienna Miller and Charlie Cox star. I have to admit I do like most films, but this one stands out a million miles. I absolutely adored the magical story line, and the characters were all wonderful. It tells the story of "shop boy" Tristan (Charlie Cox) from english town "Wall", who is discovered to be the heir to the throne of the magical land behind "the wall". He finds a fallen star, the beautiful Yvaine (Claire Danes) and they fall in love on their journey fleeing from witch Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer) who wants to kill Yvaine and eat her heart to achieve ever lasting youth for herself and her sisters. I wish I had read the book first, but all the same this absolutely divine film is now one of my all time favourites, and I will definately buy it on DVD. You must watch it yourself, I'm having trouble finding the words! Enjoy!

And while we're on the subject, may I just say to that ridiculous man on the news last week who was pompous enough to rail about the fact that the only way that theatres can get bums on seats is by dumbing down and sticking film and television actors on stage, you are an arse! He had a pop at David Tennant in particular, but clearly hadn't done his homework because if he had bothered to read up (maybe he can't read.  Maybe that's why he has to go to the theatre so much, so that people can explain things to him with actions), he would have known that David Tennant started his career as a classical theatre actor and actually did stints with the RSC before going anywhere near a Tardis.  So, Mr. Smug Theatrical Git, stick that in your curly pipe and smoke it.  I expect it was sour grapes.  Maybe he had shares in Gone With The Wind The Musical.

Apropos of which I heard/read somewhere last week that they're going to be making Fraggle Rock The Musical! I'm amazed and a bit amused.  More amused by reading about it than I would be by going to see it.  I'm not a huge fan of musicals, especially because these days they will, it seems, make absolutely anything at all into a musical.  I'm waiting for Glenfield Co-op The Musical with a backing chorus of alien transvestites.  I might actually fork out money to see that one.

Anyway, back to Macbeth.  This wasn't on at the RSC.  This was on at the Warwick Arts Centre, which also isn't very far away, and sometimes has some really good stuff on.  This was a student production, and the tickets were dirt cheap, so we were tredidatious to say the least.  I think we were going because we thought we ought, rather than because we really wanted to.  I could tell this because usually when we go to the theatre we make sure that we have at least an hour to spare in our travel time in case of emergencies, so that we will always (except in floods), get to the theatre on time.  Last night's theatrical happening started at quarter to eight and we were still sitting round my kitchen table drinking coffee and eating brownies at ten to seven.

Despite our best efforts, we made it with time to spare and took our seats for the spectacle.  It was, much to my surprise, quite entertaining.  Andrea and I agreed however, that we were hard pushed to say which was more entertaining, the actual play, or the audience.   Generally the calibre of audience at the RSC is quite high.  They tend to be old hands at Shakespeare.  They don't rustle sweet packets, eat crisps or light their own farts (although I've heard that Ian McKellen is a devil for that.  I'm never sharing the Royal Box with him).  They tend not to get pissed up in the interval and they generally don't laugh or snigger if someone has a heaving bodice or says the word 'whoreson'. 

Because we are theatre snobs, Andrea and I tend to avoid going on Saturdays if at all possible, which is when a lot of the less well trained elements of the audience, or 'riff raff', go.  I have to say that it's usually the extremes that play up in these circumstances.  It's young people who are going for a 'laugh', presumably because the place they play in outside the local shopping centre is being used for something else.  Or elderly people who think it's their god given right to stick their legs into the aisle, clean their dentures in all the soliloquies and shout; 'What did he say?' in the tender love scenes.

Anyway, our audience last night was, I am convinced, bussed in from the local hair dressing college on a night out.  It was questionable whether any of them had even heard of Shakespeare, and I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of them who had been to see a 'play' before, rather than going to the Christmas panto.  You could tell this by the fact that they were heavily into audience participation.  They liked whistling at the clinches, and shouting 'Oo-er!' or 'Phwoargh!' a lot.  They also did some squeaking during the stabby, stabby bits, and when the lights went down at one stage someone said loudly and hopefully; 'Is that it?' to which, unfortunately for us all, the answer was no.  I did think however, that this lot were probably much more authentic an audience than us reverent lot of theatre luvvies.  After all Shakespearean theatre was for the lowest of the low, the groundlings and scumbags.  It was there instead of Eastenders due to the fact that they had to wait another four hundred years to invent the telly, and it was, by all accounts a very riotous affair.

Our crowd had clearly taken this bit on board. There was also a great deal of rustling, whispering, crunching and general low level giggling.  Half the audience seemed to be made up of teenage girls, who I feel may have either been related to or fancied half the cast, which were made up of earnest young male drama students who had all grown beards to try and make them look more 'dramatic' and probably make them seem over twelve.  The girls behind us clearly fell into the fancying camp, which meant there was lots of giggling and nudging going on.  Occasionally we could catch what they were whispering to each other, which was quite funny.  There was a line in the play where someone has been stabbed (about one stabbing every twenty minutes, is a rough guide to Shakespearean tragedy), and someone was calling for 'physic' i.e. a physician to help the stabbee.  The girl behind me quite clearly said to her friend: 'I don't know what he's talking about physics for, at a time like this!' which amused me greatly and somewhat dampened the tension being acted out in front of my eyes.

As for the play itself, it had been heavily edited, which meant that some interesting cuts had been made, including the speech which starts: 'Is this a dagger I see before me?'  I thought this was an odd choice, given the fact that it is one of the most famous Shakespearean speeches.  I've always found that directors tend to cut things like 'exit pursued by bear', rather than the lynchpin of Shakespearean linguistic ability, but hey ho.  What do I know? Clearly nothing.

They had also beefed up the parts for women. The witches, who in the actual play have about ten lines between them, were on stage every waking moment, and were extremely annoying.  They had decided to play them as Austin Powers style evil fembots, but wrapped in bedsheets with footless tights and makeup reminiscent of that film with Milla Jovovich and Bruce Willis where she plays that alien woman.  They walked in a jerky, robotic dancing style way and occasionally shouted 'fuck!' for no apparent reason.  They also introduced Hecate as Queen of the witches, who tortured people with jump leads and slide shows of black and white foetus' while looking like she was a menopausal teacher with issues.  She shouted 'Fuck!' quite a bit as well, and did a lot of tapping her feet and looking at her watch.  The witches also did quite a lot of girly screaming.  It was at this point I was tempted to nip on stage and shoot them myself.

Lady Macbeth was quite promising actually, and acted her little socks off.  Macbeth was rather odd and stood around being nineteen feet tall and looking like a useless plank quite a bit.  He was pretty good at the speeches, when they hadn't cut them to make way for fembot action, but he didn't really know what to do with himself and just gangled around gormlessly for the majority of the play before being battered to death with a fire extinguisher.  This happened partially off stage and was just recreated using thumping, swooshing sounds and the sight of his feet twitching gently, stage left. MacDuff was also quite good, despite the hairdressing elements of the audience laughing when he was emoting about his wife and children being slaughtered in a weltering blood bath and said: 'All my precious chicks! Gone...'  Apparently that was hilarious.  Poor bloke.

Other highlights include:

• Duncan the old king being murdered and everyone going on about there being buckets of blood.  This was not strictly true. It was more like two small streaks of blood, Duncan's ungainly body curled up on a too small bed with his feet sticking out and everyone having to walk round him, and the talcum powder they'd put in his hair to make him look old, coming out all over the pillow.  It's a problem when there's more talc than blood.
• The fembot/witches gyrating in a cage to lewd music while Macduff was trying to rally Malcolm to take up arms against Macbeth and become the true king of Scotland.  Half way through, the first witch got bored and switched so that the second witch could have a writhe.  The third witch didn't get to dance which made me suppose that she dances like a Yorkshire pudding.  We puzzled all the way home over the symbolism of the cage.  We're still none the wiser.
• The random insertion of a Frenchman prancing around the body of dead Duncan and his drugged and framed sons, shouting: 'I am French. Zis is all a storeee, I shall tell you a real storeee, because I am French, Zut Alors!' and then talking in French for five minutes whilst miming the act of buggery with one of the blokes who was supposed to be guarding Duncan.  He was then chased off to rapturous applause from the Hairdressers, who found this interlude hilariously funny.  The French man came back in the second half but was murdered just before Macbeth got clubbed with the fire extinguisher.
• There were lots of deaths by fire extinguisher, and indeed a vote of thanks in the programme for the suppliers of the fire extinguisher.
• A small disco during the death of Duncan when Duncan's sons came on with an electric guitar and an upturned bucket to perform Jimi Hendrix style riffs while the lighting guys had a field day with the strobe lighting.  It was a mad axe solo of death.

So! That was our night out. It was quite funny, very bizarre and an education in itself.  I think Shakespeare would have been mystified, but it was for me, much better than watching the misogynistic, male rape fantasy shrew that we paid thirty quid a ticket for the other day.  Andrea and I agreed that it may have been a bit of a dog's dinner, and we really couldn't live with MacDuff's wife's cardigan in the second act, but they had all done their best and it had definitely had potential.  I'm feeling quite perked up now about the fact that we're going back next week to see Midsummer Night's Dream in a circus tent.  Who knows what delights it will bring?

Sir Ian McKellen and pop music... what a brilliant combination!
Love the vid!

Beautiful!

Parmi tous les futurs films à venir dans les prochaines années, mise à part les derniers films de la saga Harry Potter, il y en a un ou plutôt deux autres qui sont TRÈS attendus par les "geeks" dans mon genre, en tout cas: The Hobbit (Le Hobbit) de Tolkien qui est l'oeuvre avant le Seigneur des Anneaux. Je dis deux car il semble que le film sera scindé en deux (ça doit être pour faire de l'argent car le livre n'est pas si énorme que ça). Néanmoins, beaucoup avaient peur de cette nouvelle. Premièrement, Peter Jackson qui ne réalisera pas l'oeuvre (contrairement au Seigneux des Anneaux), mais la produira. D'ailleurs, celle-ci sera tournée sur la terre du réalisateur: la mythique Nouvelle-Zélande. Deuxièmement, certains sont inquiets du choix du réalisateur Guillermo Del Toro (la série Hellboy, Le Labyrinthe de Pan). Pourtant, le bonhomme s'y connaît en fantastique. Bon, en fantastique glauque, mais en fantastique pareil. De plus, il est fan de l'oeuvre littéraire comme Jackson. Ouf !

Finalement, autre crainte, il faut savoir que dans le Hobbit, on y rencontre des personnages que l'on reverra intensément dans les événements du Seigneur des Anneaux: des personnages comme Gandalf, Gollum et Aragorn par exemple. Pour Gandalf, dieu merci, le comédien Ian McKellen a confirmé qu'il reprendrait son rôle de magicien. Ce qu'il souhaitait depuis un temps, il faut dire. Quant aux autres... Andy Serkis qui a joué Gollum a avoué qu'il aimerait reprendre le rôle. Pour le rôle de Bilbo (Bilbon), il y a une rumeur qui court depuis jeudi dernier que le comédien James McAvoy jouerait le jeune Bilbo. Pourquoi pas ? Quant à Viggo Mortensen qui a joué Aragorn, pas de nouvelles ni positives mais ni négatives. Au moins, notre Gandalf sera là ! :D Le tournage devrait se faire en 2010 pour la sortie du premier diptyque en 2011 et le second en 2012. En tout cas, les "geeks" comme moi ont hâte. ;)

"It is the Alethiometer. It tells the truth. As for how to read it, you'll have to learn by yourself."

We went to see this one because there are a lot of great actors involved [see tags below - not going to list them all twice], the effects looked cool and... okay... I'll admit that the hype made me want to see it more. If I hadn't heard about the religious issues, I would have never thought this movie had any such 'deep' message about killing God, etc. To us, it was like any other fantasical story - it has an evil empire it's up against... [we didn't read the books, so maybe they were more blatantly biassed on the side of atheism?].

The movie was very entertaining. Dakota Blue Richards did an excellent job as Lyra. Sam Elliot was perfect. He was... Sam Elliot. Daniel Craig could have been in it more - I'm hoping he will be in the next one, and Nicole Kidman did a good job as that mysterious character that seems to be both for and against the protagonist. We don't know her deal - is she good, or evil? Being animal lovers, we loved the little animal 'spirit guides' the kids in the story had. It was a fun journey that takes place in another dimension, and the compass is something that can guide people to other worlds. Just so you know - it's part one of a trilogy I believe [don't quote me on that - I did NOT read the books], so the end isn't really the end. E didn't know that going in so he was a little pissed with the cliffhanger ending. This movie felt like Lord of the Rings for kids, but just as good for us 'big' kids, too. A little more light-hearted, a little more story-book like. 

I'd give this 3 1/2 out of 5. Definitely worth a rental, especially if you liked the Lord of the Rings trilogy or the Narnia stories. 

~ HELENA

Add'l Info: Released: Dec 7, 2007 • Runtime: 113 minutes • Rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence

Hobbit Update: del Toro, Ian McKellen Are In

As was expected, Ian McKellen has agreed to be a part of the two-film Hobbit project, according to Empire magazine.

McKellen had said last year that he would not be involved in The Hobbit if Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson were excluded, which was possible because of since-resolved royalties disputes with New Line Cinema. Jackson will produce the two films being adapted from and adding to J.R.R. Tolkien's original novel, The Hobbit, Or There and Back Again (1937), slated for 2010 and 2011.

The second film will advance the story beyond the ending of the book, filling in gaps between the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and those of his heir, Frodo, as recounted in The Lord of the Rings. How exactly that will fall out and what material will be used in which film has yet to be decided.

Click here to read more about it.

I really cant wait for the movie to come out.

Ian McKellen es el que tiene todas las papeletas para repetir en su papel del sabio mago Gandalf. De hecho semanas atrás se daba su nombre como el del primer miembro confirmado del reparto.

Más complicado lo tiene Elijah Wood, desde el principio en las quinielas pero cuya opción se va enfriando con el paso del tiempo. A los que sí quieren recuperar de la trilogía original es a Andy Serkis en el papel de Gollum y a Viggo Mortensen.

Sobre este último se han abierto varias especulaciones, ya que se podría incluir a Aragorn en el guión de El Hobbit, o bien dar al actor otro papel relacionado con ese personaje. La intención de Del Toro es mantener a toda costa a todos los miembros del reparto original que pueda.

E agora o ator aparece em muito melhor forma artística no clipe novo dos Guillemots, "Falling out of reach":

Se você achava Sir Ian McKellen um tanto sumido (seus últimos filmes foram O Código da Vinci e X-Men, ambos de 2006) é só botar na MTV. É isso mesmo. O rei dos palcos ingleses, famoso pelos seus personagens shakespearianos, agora também na versão videoclipe.

Os britânicos indies do Guillemots acabam de lançar seu segundo álbum, Red. O segundo single é este, Falling Out Of Reach. Música bacaninha e tranquila, bem diferente da anterior, a sexy e animada Get Over It.

Boa oportunidade para matar a saudade de Sir Ian, enquanto ele não volta às telas no aguadado The Hobbit, prometido para 2010.

Aliás, atores famosos fazendo pontas ou protagonizando videoclipes inteiros não é nenhuma novidade. Na próxima semana farei uma lista com os 10 melhores. E você pode me ajudar. Qual o videoclipe com um famoso que mais te marcou?

O ator britânico Ian McKellen vai repetir o papel do mago Gandalf nos filmes baseados no livro O Hobbit, de J.R.R Tolkien, disse ele a uma revista de cinema.

O ator de 68 anos interpretou o mesmo papel na famosa trilogia O Senhor dos Anéis, dirigida por Peter Jackson. O produtor mexicano Guillermo del Toro deve dirigir os dois filmes baseados em O Hobbit.

Leia mais clicando aqui.

Altre conferme riguardano poi il cast: per ora è ufficiale che Andy Serkis tornerà a vestire i panni di Gollum, mentre Sir Ian McKellen tornerà a coprire il ruolo di Gandalf.

Del Toro ha inoltre recentemente dichiarato a MTV che "Il messaggio è semplice: se non pensate che Peter abbia fatto un ottimo lavoro, è molto probabile che non vi piacerà ciò che farò. Se invece pensate il contrario, farò del mio meglio per rendervi orgogliosi di me."

Ora attendiamo trepidanti nuove conferme!

Rumors and riddles have been widespread over the last few months about Guillermo del Toro's front runner status to helm the Lord of the Rings prequel film(s) The Hobbit. Well, all us Tolkien fans can breathe a big sigh of relief, buy a pint (or two) of ale, and spark up the pipe of halfling weed -- we're going back to Middle-earth!

Variety reports that del Toro has signed on to direct New Line-MGM's The Hobbit and its sequel for executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. The official signing of del Toro comes four months after New Line settled a lawsuit with Jackson over profits from The Lord of the Rings and announced that it had agreed with MGM to turn Tolkien's book into two live-action films.

From SciFi:

Del Toro will move to New Zealand for the next four years to work with Jackson and his Wingnut and Weta production teams. He'll direct the two films back to back, with the sequel dealing with the 60-year period between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

With del Toro blocking out four years for the project, it's likely that the studios are aiming at starting shooting next year and releasing the films in late 2011 and 2012.

It's expected that the scripts will be written by the LoTR team of Jackson, Walsh, and Philippa Boyens.

Meanwhile, Empire Magazine confirmed that Ian McKellen well be reprising his role of one of the greatest fictional characters ever, Gandalf.

“Yes, it’s true,” he said. “I spoke to Guillermo in the very room that Peter Jackson offered me the part and he confirmed that I would be reprising the role. Obviously, it’s not a part that you turn down, I loved playing Gandalf.”

And what about our prrrreciousssss Smeagol? Check this out: Andy Serkis has added The Hobbit to his list of credits at Serkis.com. Maybe Gollum will win the Academy Award he deserved for The Twin Towers this time around! And if that's not enough Tolkien Film News for you, TheOneRing.Net has an interview with GDT discussing the tone of the films and what exactly the second film will be about.

Don't you love good news? So we gotta wait a few years -- at least we know it's coming. Besides, it'll give me time to work on my opening night costume... It takes time to craft a dwarven helm.