Update on The Hobbit

Director Guillermo del Toro is directing the two-part Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit.

While doing promotion for the new Hellboy II Blu-Ray, director Guillermo del Toro provided some minor updates on his upcoming two-part adaptation of The Hobbit. He reports that filming will commence in 2010 and last an entire year. del Toro - who's well-known for his love of practical effects like animatronics and puppetry - also says he's planning to break new ground in puppetry:

"We will be pushing them to the edge of technology where we will fuse animatronics and CGI into a seamless new art form in creating creatures." While Hellboy II had a lot of recognizable puppets, del Toro says that The Hobbit will feature more of a seamless mix. "You will see some mind-boggling mixture of CGI / puppetry like never before. "

You can read the full report here.