Peter Jackson returns to finish what he started:

Barring further hitches -- and there have been many, as the studios wrestled with their dual ownership of the project over the last year -- a financial deal should be in place over the next several days, according to several people who have been involved in the bargaining. They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing company policies, confidentiality requirements and the sensitivity of the dealings. 

The long-anticipated "Hobbit" films amount to an extension of the hugely lucrative "Lord of the Rings" franchise, which generated about $3 billion in revenue at the worldwide box office and enormous home video revenue for New Line Cinema, now a Warner unit. The films are to be made in 3-D, one of those involved in the bargaining said. That is a shift from when the project was conceived and the plan was to make them in 2-D, but the film world has changed in the many months since then.