I first read the book The Hobbit way back in about grade 5 actually just after our teacher had read the entire story to us over the course of several weeks. Immediately I jumped all over The Lord Of The Rings series and the other books by J.R.R. Tolkien.
When the first movie from the Lord Of The Rings (10 years ago!) hit the screen I knew they had struck gold as it was a visual treat to watch and pretty much stuck to the Tolkien storyline. I wondered when they were ever going to bring the prequel of Bilbo Baggins' The Hobbit to the screen and the production was beset by difficulties and it looked like the elderly Ian McKellen may not be available to recreate his excellent role of Gandalf the Grey. Finally they've moved forward with the movie and they have released the first trailer which you should see below.
The film will not be released until December 2013 a full two years from now but just from this trailer I believe it will definitely be worth it. Gandalf looks as weathered as he did in the trilogy and we see the youthful Bilbo and his meetup with the host of Dwarves who will accompany him on his adventure (and his fateful first meeting with Gollum). I am looking forward to more sneak peeks at this film during the run up to it's release.