There it is, the announcement we were waiting for. I guess Guillermo Del Toro currently has to let his work on ‘Saturn and the End of Days‘ rest, because he will move to New Zealand for the next 4 years (!) to work back to back on the two Hobbit movies.

The news came from executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, who won’t be making the film because of the Wingnut Films (Jackson’s production company) lawsuit against New Line Cinema.

New Line is producing the fantasy and the movies are co-produced and co-financed by New Line Cinema and MGM.

Jay Scherick and David Ronn weren’t too pleased when their pitches at the Hollywood studios brought them nothing but rejection. Maybe it wasn’t until they stopped telling everybody they co-wrote ‘Norbit,’ that almost one year later they finally made a deal.

The script ‘Zookeeper’ is about a zookeeper who gets dating tips from the talking animals he works with. MGM made the deal and proudly describes it as ‘Hitch’ with animals. Apparently, Disney and Dreamworks were interested in the script too, both fitting candidates. And this way, Scherick and Ronn got “a $2 million advance against a $3 million if the project gets made.”

I just hope they bring something new to the ‘talking animals table.’ They pretty much have to, with that amount of money.

It’s never bad to have some healthy competition. MGM, Lionsgate and Viacom are getting ready to launch a premium channel to compete with HBO and Showtime. Currently planned to go live in autumn 2009, the channel will feature newly produced series, as well as movies like the upcoming ‘Iron Man.’

Since some say HBO has lost its edge, it might be a good thing and get them some focus. Or has the time come for somebody else to take over?