Back to Hobbiton

Ian Holm (left) and Elijah Wood in The Lord of the Rings.

A film of The Hobbit might finally be on after Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - which holds the distribution rights to the film - said it would go ahead with the film and hoped Peter Jackson would helm what would in effect be a prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Jackson has often expressed interest in doing the film once the rights were sorted. But he now has a full schedule with producer duties on Halo and Dambusters, as well as directing The Lovely Bones.

Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the trilogy, has said he would gladly play a younger version of the wizard in a Hobbit film. And the good folk of Matamata, where LOTR's Hobbiton was built, will he happy to hear the spotlight might be coming back on - unless they use the village set on Jackson's country estate in the Wairarapa.

The burning question remains: who best to play hobbit Bilbo Baggins. Sir Ian Holm, who played the older version of him in LOTR, turned 75 this week so he might not be up for the story's more adventurous scenes.