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by Valkrist
There's been absolutely no word on whether the Hobbit movie will be made and released by next year. The 2008 deadline for a movie has been mentioned several times mainly because that is when New Line Cinema loses the rights to the movie and they revert back to the Saul Zaentz company. Robert Shaye, co-founder of New Line is in a legal dispute with Peter Jackson and wants to get the movie made really fast before Peter has any chance of being involved in it, but other than that, there are no substantiated claims that indicate the movie is being made and released by next year. Knowing how long this process can take, and given that there is no known movement on even so much as a script, coupled with the distribution rights being tangled up with MGM, all point to a very long road before this movie gets made, and 2008 looks highly unlikely.
This is kinda off-topic, but just mentioning the facts before wild speculation begins on licensed products from a movie that is stuck in pre-development and legal hell for the time being.