The Hobbit's path to the screen may have started out as tortuous as a trek through the deadly Helcaraxe, filled with detours (Guillermo del Toro was initially going to direct), marked by conflict (New Zealand labor disputes) and strewn with seemingly insurmountable obstacles (so many that the filmmakers threatened to move the shoot to Australia).
But with Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy having taken in almost $3 billion at the box office, there was never any real doubt that J.R.R.
