This weekend we told you here about rumored problems with the production of The Hobbit. At issue is MGM’s financial troubles which could delay the start of shooting on the film indefinitely… or maybe not.

Only hours after that story hit the internet Lord of the Rings star Andy Serkis, who will reprise his role as Gollum for The Hobbit, showed up at the Empire Awards and had an entirely different take on the situation. Serkis told Digital Spy that it’s shooting soon. Of course how Andy defines soon may not actually be all that soon. He followed up that comment by specifying, saying it would shoot “at some point towards the end of this year.”

Since it doesn’t sound like he has a definite date in mind, it could still well be that they’re all simply waiting around for MGM to sort out its financial troubles.