With the amount of money Lord of the Rings made, adapting Tolkien's other books into feature films seems natural. So no one was surprised when wast week we brought you the rumor that New Line might finally be planning a movie version of "The Hobbit". Now we have a confirmation of that rumor… well, sort of.

Variety reports that it's not New Line that's planning a Hobbit movie, but MGM. Fans who've been keeping up no doubt remember that the reason New Line didn't start talking Hobbit the minute Return of the King was that they didn't own the rights to it. MGM did. Apparently they still do, since MGM chairman and CEO Harry Sloan announced The Hobbit will be one of several new projects the studio plans to move into the big-budget, tentpole movie business. Word is that The Hobbit may actually be two films.

Many had hoped New Line would be able to buy the rights and get Peter Jackson to direct, but it now sounds like MGM isn't selling. That's the bad news. The good news is that Sloan says they want Peter Jackson to direct their film. Will they get him? Jackson has a relationship with New Line, and even if they had made it his return wasn't certain. He's expressed interest in doing it, but according to Stuff.co.nz Peter Jackson's spokespeople are denying that he's been approached by MGM with the job.