Ian McKellen Now Unsure of When 'The Hobbit' Starts

Here's more Ian McKellen-talks-The Hobbit news. As you're probably aware, all news about the puzzlingly troubled production starts with McKellen first and then gets filtered by Peter Jackson, who usually says he doesn't know where such information comes from. It's all quite amusing. Months ago, Sir Ian said the production would begin in April, but it's May. Then he said June. That's not happening, either. And we now know the first movie will arrive in IMAX in December 2012 (likely digital 3-D, too, but there's no official word yet), so where does that leave McKellen's assured comments of a while ago? Intact, but pushed back, according to What's Playing (via Latino Review).

“That should have started in April but they didn’t contact me about a contract until a few weeks ago and we’re in negotiation” before saying that: “I shall see (director) Guillermo del Toro and (executive producer) Peter Jackson when I’m in New Zealand after we’ve been to Australia and well find out more then.”

McKellen goes on to say that he likes what he's read of the script ("very accomplished and good, I thought, and a wonderful part, Gandalf"), but adds that he still doesn't have a contract or a start date. I know the MGM thing and the Tolkien estate vs. New Line lawsuit are conspiring factors in this series not getting made sooner, but even beyond that it seems that there has been a lot more trouble with The Hobbit than we'd expected.