It’s obviously far too early to make any accurate predictions about the success of the upcoming Hobbit movies, but so far things are looking good. Hiring a fantasy-obsessed director with a series of entertaining low-budget horror movies and one award-winning foreign masterpiece worked wonders the last time Hollywood tackled Middle Earth, so hopefully the risk will pay off this time as well. With Peter Jackson, Ian McKellen, and Andy Serkis not only supporting the project, but deeply involved on a creative level, it’s clear that the films will honor the original movies and hopefully reach the same level of artistic success. Guillermo Del Toro has gone on record as saying that he doesn’t like to direct a movie unless there is at least one monster involved and he’ll have plenty of those to work with here. Del Toro is a young director at the top of his game who seems on the verge of peaking artistically. Perhaps, like Peter Jackson before him, the Tolkien universe will provide just the inspiration he needs to create a masterwork. Only time will tell. Until then, fantasy nerds and Tolkien-geeks will just have to masturbate to their well-worn extended DVDs of Lord Of The Rings and Pan’s Labyrinth and imagine the possibilities.–PB, News Extensions