Just last week, things didn't look so good for The Hobbit. Despite rumors, Peter Jackson said that the project was still not greenlit and that he hadn't yet been named as the new director. Add that to the fact that his New Zealand workshop burned to the ground and one could say that the movie was going to hell in a hand-basket. Until today.

The Wrap is reporting from an unnamed inside source that The Hobbit has now gotten its official greenlight and that Peter Jackson officially holds the title of not only producer and writer, but director as well. The article says that the production is scheduled to begin in February, but they haven't yet confirmed who will take the lead role of Bilbo Baggins (though Martin Freeman has been heavily rumored). Jackson is, of course, the second director to be named for the project after Guillermo del Toro dropped the project in May.

Between the director swaps, fires, actor's unions and studio financial crises, it's been an insanely rough road for the film to but we may now finally get to see The Hobbit move into production. That is, of course, until this story is put down next week because of some sort of tornado/hurricane/earthquake hybrid that causes the entire southern hemisphere to break off into space. Because we all know it's coming.

UPDATE: The New York Times is running the same story crediting "a person who was briefed on the movie’s intricacies this week." This time the story might actually be for real.