There has been a lot of talk when The Hobbit might start shooting,and today executive producer of the film Peter Jackson talked to Moviefone.com and confirmed that the script is complete and he also talked about the date to start the production:
"We've just delivered the script. Literally last week, we delivered the second of the two screenplays -the first draft.So the studio's got both scripts now, which is a milestone; and if anything was holding it up, it was us doing the screenplays, because we'd just been writing as fast as we can, but it took us this long to get them finished. So we take whatever responsibility there is for the speed. And we're now in the process of budgeting the films, and then hopefully we'll get to a budget the studio [people] are happy with, and they'll greenlight the movies and we'll announce the shooting dates.I'd be pretty optimistic that we'll be shooting before the end of the year. I would imagine October,November,we'd be shooting by. I'm not announcing it, though."
Also he says that the film has never actually been announced:
"Well, it's not really been delayed, because we've never announced the date. I mean it's sort of interesting because the studio [MGM] has never greenlit 'The Hobbit,' so therefore 'The Hobbit' has never been officially announced as a "go" project, nor have we ever announced a date. But there's so much interest that people -- newspapers and magazines, of their own account, say, ah, it's likely to film in May, it's likely to film in June, it's likely to film in September. People make this stuff up. And then if it's not filming in June, you get a story saying, "'The Hobbit's' been delayed." But it's never actually been announced."
I hope everything goes as planned and that they start shooting the film as soon as possible!