After months of assuming that stars Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis would be returning for Peter Jackson‘s two-part adaptation of The Hobbit, but wondering just what was taking so long to officially lock them up, it’s been finally announced that the two actors will definitely be reprising their roles.

McKellen was Academy Award nominated for his work as Gandalf in Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Serkis should have gotten an Oscar nomination for his performance capture work as Gollum — both of which are important characters in J.R.R. Tolkien‘s first adventure in that world, The Hobbit. We’ve already heard of plenty of LOTR characters who weren’t part of The Hobbit but were being used anyway, so many worried where these two all-crucial actors were and why their casting was delayed.

Now that McKellen and Serkis are confirmed, all seems to be in place for the most part. There’s still casting to be done and work to complete before filming can ensue, but it looks like all systems are go for the planned February 14 start date.

The first images from Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson‘s planned trilogy adaptation of The Adventures of Tintin have been released online.

The performance-capture films will begin with the Spielberg-directed The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, which is set for release on December 28, 2011. The opening film is a combination of three stories — The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn, and Red Rackham’s Treasure — follows Tintin (Jamie Bell), a young reporter who meets a man known as Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), and the two discover a clue that might lead to a treasure belonging to Haddock’s great ancestor.

Now comes our first peek at what the movie will look like by way of Empire Magazine. It’s nothing too surprising here — the movies look like the classic Tintin with a nice performance-capture/CGI makeover, and that was exactly the idea.

Be sure to click over right now to see the two first images, and you can also click the image up top for Empire’s magazine cover.

Just a few days ago we found out that after so many complications, the adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s fabled tale, The Hobbit, had finally received a greenlight by studios, and that Peter Jackson would indeed be returning to direct the two-part film.

At the same time, we heard that one of the front runners for the hotly pursued lead role of Bilbo Baggins, Martin Freeman, was ever so close to nabbing the job. This little dream casting for many is now officially a reality as Jackson has announced a chunk of castings for his film, including the confirmation of Mr. Freeman as Bilbo.

Freeman was one of what seemed to be three top fan choices along with James McAvoy and Doctor Who‘s David Tennant. The actor hasn’t done a ton of stuff to gain recognition here in the States, but you may best recognize him as the lead in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He also was on the original UK version of The Office, and had small roles in Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Love, Actually.

Well gosh darn it — you want to think a movie is going to be terrible when you hear that said movie will be a Planet of the Apes prequel and that it will use CGI effects instead of the better-known costume and prosthetic effects. But despite all of the alarms going off in our heads about this project, every new casting announcement that comes along seems to add another level of intrigue.

It’s now being reported by The Wrap that the great Brian Cox will be joining the cast of Rise of the Apes, the 20th Century Fox prequel that will take place long before the events seen in Planet of the Apes. Cox will be playing a role he can play to absolute perfection: the villain. He would be playing the owner of a multitude of primates used for testing in a lab that he tends to treat very poorly. This spells bad things for Mr. Cox.

When it comes to computer animated primates, Andy Serkis is no rookie. In addition to his wonderful work bringing Gollum to life in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Serkis was the man behind the motion capture creation of Kong in Peter Jackson’s King Kong.

Now comes news that the actor is ready to become ape once again. In a Twitter message from 20th Century’s Fox’s vice president of corporate communications, Chris Petrikin, it was revealed that Serkis would be playing Caeser in their Planet of the Apes prequel, Rise of the Apes. The VP said “This is cool: Gollum reteams with Weta. Andy Serkis to star as Caesar in ‘Rise of the Apes,’ portraying chimp who leads the simian revolt.”