That’s SIR Peter Jackson, buddy, and don’t you forget it. That goes for Sir Patrick Stewart as well. Both men have received their official knighthoods, earning the the title “Sir” before their name. Both men received their honors for individual contributions to the entertainment industry. Peter Jackson is currently at work preparing his next film, The Hobbit, though he will be leaving the directing to someone else and wearing the producer mantle this time around.

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After legal wrangling, issues of cinematic rights, back payments for the original trilogy resolved, it appears The Hobbit is finally ready to go before cameras…soon. Director Guillermo del Toro hit up the fan forums at The One Ring and offered the following:

“We may say what we want but until there are two scripts delivered and budgets and schedules to support them we will be all under a yellow light of development. THAT we have not stopped.

“As I have reported in the past, we are scouting, designing (my last 3 hour meeting with Weta was this morning) and will not stop. BUT the greenlight and thus commencement can only be granted by the studio. Pete as producer and me as director will do everything we can in the meantime.”

“Is there any trouble brewing with WB? Not at all. All I can say is that they reacted to our delivered script with great delight and we have been receiving strong support in our development.”

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Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the forthcoming The Lovely Bones, claims he once saw a ghost.

“I woke up one morning and there was a figure in the room, she was very scary, she had a screaming face, very accusatory, she was a lady about 50 years old,” Jackson said.

“It was terrifying actually, a very scary image and she was at the end of the bed and she glided across the room and disappeared into the wall.

“I sat in bed and thought, have I really seen that?” said Jackson.

“Then Fran came in. I told her about it and the first thing she said was: ‘was it the woman with the screaming face?”‘ he said.

“Fran had seen the same woman in the same room about two years before.”

Jackson said that when the St James Theatre was being restored a few years ago, people talked about the legend of the woman who committed suicide after being booed off the stage after a bad show in vaudeville days.

“They say she manifests herself in the theatre with a screaming face. Sometimes she’s seen – the same ghost. She needs to learn to smile a little.”

Source: Stuff NZ

Geez, and things were going along so nicely. With production of The Hobbit getting ready to commence, everything seemed in order for Peter Jackson and director Del Toro to bring Tolkien’s The Hobbit to life, but the Tolkien Estate has just thrown everything into doubt with a huge, nasty lawsuit.

The Tolkien heirs feel they are owed $220-million in unpaid profits from the original trilogy of films and are actively trying to terminate New Line Cinema’ film-rights.

From MTV Movie Blog:

The Tolkien Trust lawsuit threatens to put the brakes on the adaptation once again. The case hinges on the film rights sold by J.R.R. Tolkien back in 1969, which promised a reported 7.5% of future profits. The Tolkien estate insists their rightful share has never been paid, while New Line insists the terms of the old contract are “ambiguous.”

The case is due in court in October, and will be decided in the midst of Jackson and Del Toro’s pre-production work. Let’s hope that it’s resolved quickly, quietly and preferably with an out-of-court settlement so we can finally see Bilbo Baggins go on that fateful, One Ring-finding quest.