Although everyone had long been proceeding under the assumption that Guillermo del Toro's two-part adaptation of The Hobbit was a go, there was always one thing looming in the background that threatened to derail the project — the Tolkien family lawsuit. The family (and Harper Collins Publishers) claimed that royalty payments that New Line owed them for the Lord of the Rings movies — which raked in nearly $6 billion worldwide — were never paid. The suit sought to block production of The Hobbit until a settlement was reached.
Today it was announced that the suit has finally been settled out of court. The amount of the settlement was not disclosed, but we're going to safely assume it was for a ton. The really important news, though, is that one of the last obstacles for making The Hobbit into a movie has been cleared. Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief.
The next question to be settled: Who's going to play Bilbo? At this rate, we should be getting an answer very soon.