It looks like The Hobbit may be close to starting production. The One Ring caught up with Gandalf for Life, Sir Ian McKellan on British Television, where he revealed that he has received a copy of both scripts for the upcoming two Hobbit movies.

It seems the movie’s director has even been talking to him about shooting schedules. McKellan tells Empire, “Guillermo even told me at one point, 'We're going to film for 383 days.'” That seems like a very specific number. But it definitely sounds like they have another one of those move to New Zealand and never leave, marathon like Lord of the Rings shooting schedules in mind. Probably they’re even shooting the two movies at the same time, which, is pretty damn cool by me. Better still if, as they did with Lord of the Rings, Jackson sets up the sort of fan interaction he did previously, letting us get an eyeball on everything that’s going on while the movie’s being made. That was all the rage for a year or two, before Hollywood discovered viral marketing. Would be great to see that kind of substantive fan interaction back again, in place of endless puzzles which lead nowhere.