As the pre-production process for The Hobbit drags on and on and on, at least director Guillermo del Toro is doing a good job of keeping the anxious fans up to date. He checked in with the message boards at TheOneRing.net back in January to promise that things were still progressing despite all those delays, and to suggest that several rumors-- Bilbo being a CG character, the film being in 3D-- were nothing but speculation.

But a month has gone by, a month in which virtually every major blockbuster in production has made the switch to 3D or strongly considered it. So responding to fan concerns that The Hobbit would go the same direction, del Toro popped back on to the message boards to say, basically, have patience young grasshopper.

Here's the post in its entirety:

I wouldn't read much on it just yet, but now, after all this time, after AVATAR doing the Box Office it did, we have had enquires from above about The Hobbit being in 3-D.

No impositions or heavy leaning. Just enquires. Just fulfilling my promise to let you all know if discussions ever started.

Cheers

GDT

So, basically, chill out nerds-- no one knows one way or another whether The Hobbit will go 3D, though it's pretty obvious that the suits would prefer it. At this point, I'm not sure if del Toro has any reason to fight it. The Hobbit, as an effects-heavy film that will cost a ton of money, is a logical candidate for 3D, and I can't imagine it losing anything once you put on the special glasses. But then again, I'm not the devoted Hobbit at Cinema Blend, so maybe Josh will be by later to tell me why I'm totally wrong. Any of you guys have an opinion one way or another?