As we’ve been reporting for months now, Peter Jackson has been hard at work on his two planned Hobbit film adaptations, and back in March, rumors arose about what the official titles of the two films would be.

Now, the official titles as well as the final release dates have been confirmed for the two movies: Part I, which will be released on December 14, 2012, is called The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; Part II, which will be released a year later on December 13, 2013, is called The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

Pretty much every actor who portrayed a popular character in director Peter Jackson‘s epic Lord of the Rings trilogy has been rumored to be coming back in one aspect or another for the two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s earlier classic, The Hobbit.

Many of the characters who are said to be returning had absolutely nothing to do with Tolkien’s Hobbit, and were only introduced later on in Rings. Nevertheless, one must understand that in addition to making a strong adaptation of The Hobbit, Jackson also must try and secure the fanbase he had from LOTR“”including those who never read the books from which these movies are made.

And so, Jackson made one of the rumored names official today with the announcement that Orlando Bloom has signed on to reprise his role as the elven archery master, Legolas.

The first trailer for director Paul W.S. Anderson‘s new action movie, The Three Musketeers, has been released online.

The movie certainly looks interesting — perhaps even a little too action-packed — as you might expect from an Anderson flick. You can see for yourself by checking out the trailer below; share your thoughts in the comments!

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.

A few new images from the set of Paul W.S. Anderson‘s new adaptation of The Three Musketeers have shown up online.

The pictures show Mads Mikkelsen (King Arthur, Casino Royale) as Rochefort, and Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief star and former Spider-Man candidate Logan Lerman as the lead, D’Artagnan. It’s not the best peek at Lerman, but as you’ll see, Mikkelsen looks pretty awesome.

We first heard about the movie last September when it was announced that Anderson would be directing his own 3D adaptation of the classic Alexandre Dumas story.

Be sure to continue on and check out some of the first images of the new Three Musketeers now!