Veteran actor ian mckellen, who already worked on the trilogy of "The Lord of the Rings" playing Gandalf, has written on his own website confirming his presence in the film of "The Hobbit", which will finally be directed by Peter Jackson:
“At 71 years old, I am in good shape. For a year or more, I have been fixing my professional commitments to the possibility of doing 'The Hobbit'. We thought it might be in New Zealand in early 2010, I even met with Guillermo del Toro to see the script for the first part, but there was a delay. With Peter Jackson already at the helm, I kept in touch. Now we know that we will start on February 21 in Wellington. "