Dreams do come true, it’s been now unequivocally proven. It was announced sometime ago that New Line was planning on making the J.R Tolkien Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit into a movie. It was later announced that Rings director Peter Jackson would be taking the producer seat on this one and that a new director will be taking the reigns. This was met with mixed reactions but personally I believed it to be a good thing, as although I loved the Lord of the Rings movies I always thought The Hobbit had a much darker and smaller theme, which would suit a different director. So it’s now been official announced that Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth director and a favourite of mine, Guillermo Del Toro will be directing the now double feature film story.

Source: The One Ring

Well known and talented Australian actor Heath Ledger was found dead today in his Apartment in SoHo, New York, of an apparent drug overdose. Ledger was found by a housekeeper and a massage therapist, who entered the bedroom to find him face down, naked, and unconscious at the foot of his bed with sleeping pills on a nearby night table. Prescription medication was found in the bathroom. It is not know whether this was an intentional overdose or not but statements from friends and family are that there were no signs of depression. One theory is that he unintentionally overdosed while trying to relieve symptoms of Pneumonia. I will update this article when more facts are known.

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Zombie pioneer George Romero has recently released the trailer for his latest film in his ongoing series of zombie horror films. This one is titled Diary of the Dead and seems to take on a different format to his previous films. The lead character Jason (Joshua Close) is an apsiring documentary filmmaker who keeps the camera rolling as the people start rising from the dead and wrecking havoc. You can’t quite tell from the trailer if the entire film will be seen from the prespective of Jason’s camera, The Blair Witch Project style, or if we’ll sometimes be viewing the action from another perspective. There’s a couple of quick shots that look like they’re shot on a tripod and there’s some news footage that suggests the latter. Either way, the format looks like it could yield some interesting results.

Also, there is a contest associated with this trailer where you could have your own zombie film being a special feature on the DVD release of the film. Details will soon be available on the film’s MySpace page.