yep, been following this as well -also watched the two video diaries of Peter Jackson. Don't know how I feel about those slim dwarves - although why shouldn't there be? ... they're are done with shooting block 1 - and one of the facts that amazed me was they they have 254 shooting days for the two movies (Lord of the Rings had 255 for all three movies) ... I'm looking sooo much forward to this - especially since I'm reading the hobbit for my oldest (6) girl at the moment