With The Hobbit shaping up to be one of next year's most anticipated films, there has been no shortage of rumors on casting and when the film will start shooting, including our news item from last month where Andy Serkis said the film will start shooting later this year. Now Moviefone was able to speak Peter Jackson, who confirmed that the screenplays for both The Hobbit and The Hobbit Sequel have been completed.

We've just delivered the script. Literally last week, we delivered the second of the two screenplays -- the first draft. So the studio's got both scripts now, which is a milestone.

Jackson also addressed the talk of when the film might start shooting, but said that the film hasn't officially been greenlit as of yet and a start date hasn't even been announced.

Well, it's not really been delayed, because we've never announced the date. I mean it's sort of interesting because the studio [MGM] has never greenlit The Hobbit, so therefore The Hobbit has never been officially announced as a "go" project, nor have we ever announced a date. But there's so much interest that people -- newspapers and magazines, of their own account, say, ah, it's likely to film in May, it's likely to film in June, it's likely to film in September. People make this stuff up. And then if it's not filming in June, you get a story saying, "The Hobbits' been delayed." But it's never actually been announced.

He also said that while they have, "done a little bit of auditioning," they haven't been in official talks with actors yet, although he said if the film was greenlit in the next few months, "we would be hopefully making some casting announcements by, I guess, the middle of the year."

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