Tickets on sale November 7th -- don't be left out in the cold on opening night.

Peter Jackson has also revealed the running time of the first film: 2 hours and 40 minutes.

According to Empire, Colbert recently visited the Hobbit set in New Zealand:

I flew out and watched them shoot some scenes and went to some locations. I saw a 25-minute cut, and it was amazing. [Peter] Jackson knows I'm a big fan of the films.

Asked if he would be making a cameo, Colbert replied coyly: "Could be."

The Argentinian poster for Peter Jackson's increasingly (maddeningly?) epic The Hobbit trilogy.

At one point, Doctor Who's Matt Smith expressed the desire to do a Peter Jackson-directed, New Zealand-shot episode of the show. It turns out that Jackson is a big DW fan, and would love to do it.

Well, now it's up to the producers to make it a reality, and they're prepared to do just that. Executive producer Caroline Skinner is fully on board, and ready to negotiate the hard part: paying Peter Jackson's salary.

Fingers crossed.

In a brand-new Hobbit trailer, we get our first look at the troll encampment, and some of Peter Jackson's famous "humor."

In theaters December 14.

Nobody knows how Peter Jackson is going to squeeze three movies out of The Hobbit, but at least we won't have to wait as many holiday seasons to find out. The third film in the Kiwi director's recently expanded trilogy, The Hobbit: There And Back Again, releases on July 18, 2014 -- seven months after The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

[geektyrant]