THE HOBBIT Part I Now Opens In 2012?

After Peter Jackson told the world that filming for THE HOBBIT won’t start filming until next summer because the they’re not done with the second script yet and the studio hasn’t greenlit the project, the concern was whether or not the release of the 2-part adaptation would be delayed as well. No word about it at the time, but unfortunately TheWrap has heard that a delay might be the case after all…

THE HOBBIT part I was supposed to open in 2011 and part II was scheduled to open in 2012 but the website has heard from an executive close to the film that Warner Bros. is now likely to release the first film at the end of 2012 which means Part II would hit theaters in 2013.

“While it is still possible that it could come out in December 2011, it looks more likely to be 2012,”

The bright side is, if it indeed would take 383 days to shoot the the whole story, moving the release to 2011 is not a bad idea because then it would give enough time for Jackson, GDT and the Weta wizards to work on post-production and FX and make the film as awesome to watch on the big screen as LOTR films.