MGM has the largest back-catalog of movies in Hollywood - musicals, James Bond, Ben-Hur - you name it, MGM has it stashed in a vault somewhere. They have over 4,000 movies. Just imagine the amount of DVDs they could release and re-release and… you see what I’m getting at.

In the past several years they haven’t been too lucky: They were bought out by Sony and became a little more than a distribution company… but recently they’ve been getting back into the producing sector.

They have Tom Cruise’s Valkyrie in the pipeline, but hey - who needs an original idea when you can remake an old film or bleed a franchise dry.

MGM has set its sights on RoboCop and Fame remakes as well as more Bond, more Pink Panther films, and maybe more than two Hobbit films and possibly, possibly - another Rocky!

Yes you read that correctly.

Another Rocky film.

Now that Guillermo del Toro has been officially unveiled as the director of The Hobbit, fans are now asking, “Which Lord of the Rings actors will return, good Sir?”

Fair enough question.

In regards to Gandalf the Grey (i.e. Sir Ian McKellan), he tells Empire Online:

“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.”

Millions of geeks across of the world must now change their pants…

Guillermo del Toro (currently in post-production on this summer’s HellBoy II: The Golden Army) has officially signed on to direct The Hobbit and its sequel - i.e. the untitled Lord of the Rings “bridge” film.

This announcement comes after months and months (and months!) of speculation, rumor and flat-out Internet BS.

When it comes to these mega-budget blockbuster tentpoles, the actors generally tend to be the last to know anything.

Nonetheless, it’s always nice to get an update from one of them. The latest example comes from Sir Ian “I’m also Magneto” McKellen regarding The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings “bridge” film; scheduled for Christmas 2010 and 2011 releases.

When asked about his participation in said films, he tells us:

“Yes I will, if Peter Jackson and I have anything to do with it, he being the producer and me being, on the whole, a very lucky actor.”

Has Sir Ian even been approached about any additional Middle-Earth outings to begin with? According to him:

The OneRing.Net, the Tolkien-centric site that said back in January that Guillermo del Toro (the director behind Pan’s Labyrinth) was “99 percent certain” to helm The Hobbit as well as an untitled Lord of the Rings “bridge” film, has an update for us.

The HellBoy helmer had this to say:

“At this stage anything I say is of no consequence for I am not yet signed to do ‘The Hobbit.’ Negotiations advance but are still ongoing.”

But it doesn’t end there - he also adds:

“All I can say is that I am diligently going through all Tolkien material related to Middle-earth but only as a way of bridging a gap in my reading. I still respond the strongest to ‘The Hobbit,’ but as an avid reader of Mythology I find a lot of his other writings fascinating. A perfect Cosmology forged from very eclectic sources.”

It seemed, for a brief moment at least, Hollywood was a place of joy following the writers strike. The writers, the studios and even the agents all seemed to be getting along at last. However, it couldn’t stay like that for long. Suddenly there has been a wave of high profile disagreements over contracts, profits and film rights.

Lawsuits have now begun to fly around like cocaine at a party held by the late Don Simpson (allegedly).

First up; the Tolkien Estate have called in the lawyers to see where their profit participation went on The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Secondly, Benedict Fitzgerald, co-writer of The Passion of the Christ sues Mel Gibson over his (alleged) fair share of that films profits.
Finally, 20th Century Fox have (allegedly) decided that they own the film rights to comic book Watchmen and they’ve called in the lawyers to stop Warner Bros moving ahead with the project.

Sheesh, what a week - allegedly

Well, word came down that Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, will only be producing The Hobbit and its sequel, which may either be The Hobbit broken up into two films, or what’s been rumored, which is a prequel to LotR.

At any rate, does Sam Raimi turning down Spider-Man 4 mean he’s in a position to direct The Hobbit and the sequel?

This is BIG news on multiple levels if it turns out to be true. Marketsaw.com, a blog about 3D movies says the not only have New Line and Peter Jackson apparently worked out their differences, but that the Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit will be not one, but two movies. Not only that, but they will be shot in 3D!

Peter Jackson will indeed DIRECT The Hobbit! This is my second source telling me this. You can be 100% SURE that this is happening. The story will be split into two separate movies as was previously thought with the second relating much more to Lord of the Rings than the first. Wait, as if that wasn’t enough: Here is the kicker people: The Hobbit will be in 3D.

The sources of this info are the same ones that originated the recent Avatar alien image.

But wait, there’s more…

Sam Raimi doesn’t have to work on anything at all if he doesn’t want to, but his options are wide open. Following the success of his Spider-Man films the red carpet now belongs to him. He’s kicking back and pondering quite a few projects right now, including the possibility of Spider-Man 4. From the sound of it, he (and Marvel and the studio) realize that they need to do something very different with the next Spider-Man film considering the reaction of moviegoers to the weirdness that was Spider-Man 3.

Regarding Spidey, Raimi stated:

“Right now, Sony is meeting with different writers to try and bring a fresh, new story and approach to the ‘Spider-Man’ franchise, different writers have been coming in and spinning different tales of where ‘Spider-Man’ could go from here… A lot of people are working very hard to work on a really good story right now.”

A little while back, Peter Jackson asked New Line Cinema to open their Lord of the Rings accounting books, to investigate some strange financial things. The head of the studio Bob Shaye refused, so Jackson filed a lawsuit to have the books opened to see if profits were hidden, after the studio refused to do so.

Shaye, whose New Line, by the way, is owned by Time Warner, then went on a public tirade against the man who made more money for Shaye’s company than Freddy Krueger.

When that happened, Jackson wished everyone the best on The Hobbit film and potential second Lord of the Rings prequel.

So when Jackson started shopping his The Lovely Bones project around, New Line was left out of the bidding. Bets were abound that Shaye would be fired from the company he founded.

Now, word has hit that New Line may be finally trying to make amends with Jackson as The Hobbit starts to get off the ground.