Filming of The Hobbit starts with Peter Jackson directing after a troubled re-production

It's good to see that filming of The Hobbit has started after what seems like an endless stream of delays from copyright issues to ill health from the director.

The journey so far has been well documented and includes scripting issues, rights issues, director issues but the film is in the right hands and come Christmas 2012 we should be enjoying the first of the 2 movies.

The original films were an unknown quantity at this stage of production, and little known director Peter Jackson was spreading the word as much as he could that he was making the Lord of the Rings trilogy, no one could have anticipated how the film would re-write cinema history.

Hype for the two new films will reach fever pitch, anticipation will be higher than Star Wars Episode 1, but Jackson is a better director than Lucas and the feeling that these films will be nothing short of amazing is strong.

There is still a year and nine months until we get to see the films but expect the first production still soon and no doubt video vignettes and diary's to keep us interested. The original films had a web cam on set at the Hobbiton village; I'd like to see that return.