"The Hobbit" is clear to proceed! The heirs of J.R.R. Tolkien and New Line Cinema announced a settlement of a lawsuit between the two parties in a joint press release today, Tuesday Sept 8, 2009.

The lawsuit had sought to block the release of two upcoming prequels based on Tolkien's novel, "The Hobbit." Tolkien's heirs claimed the studio owed it millions in profits from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy which were released between 2001 and 2003. The terms of the settlement were not released, but it appears a major beneficiary will be The Tolkien Trust a charity organization.

The plan was to be impartial and emotionless in the printed word and provide interested parties (hopefully you dear reader) all the facts and information from Peter Jackson’s un-press conference in San Diego as possible.

After all, he had 40 or so of us delighted to be trapped in a room with him in a small but luxurious hotel a few hundred meters from the convention center where the world’s biggest celebration of popular culture was taking place. It was the end of the first day of the four-day event and Jackson had swooped into town, showed off his first ever public screening of “District 9,” and then convened Geek Court.