You Can Now Pencil In Two Titled HOBBIT Movies Into Your Datebook

It’s official! The Hobbit films now have names and release dates, and the names feel totally correct for the original text. The first one is called The Lord of the Rings Begins: The Hobbit: Rise of Gollum and the second is called The Lord of the Rings Begins: The Hobbit: Attack of the Five Armies. Nice, right?

No, not really. The first, which hits theaters on December 14, 2012, will be The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, while the second, on December 13, 2013, will be The Hobbit: There and Back Again. I like them, especially as we’re just going to be calling them The Hobbit 1 and The Hobbit 2 anyway.

Meanwhile, Peter Jackson is answering fan questions on his Facebook page, and he’s getting all oblique about whether or not the White Council’s attack on Dol Guldur - essentially the prelude to the War of the Ring, where the powers of Middle Earth discovered an evil force called the Necromancer was actually Sauron - will be shown in the movie.

I’m not going to say just what and when, but I will confirm that both the White Council and Dol Guldur will feature in the movies. And not just in one scene either. Just how to visualise it has been a challenge, but fortunately Alan Lee and John Howe went crazy with ideas, and it should look pretty cool.

There you have it.