I read in a magazine today that The Hobbit becoming a movie is a definite possibility, since Peter Jackson declared that there would never be another Lord Of The Rings Movie he has softened up on the issue quite a bit, all of the characters would be who they are in the Trilogy meaning that there would be the real Gandalf and the same Gollum with the right voice and everything played by the only actor suited for the part, it's lucky for us that in The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of The King Bilbo looks older than the actor actually is, (Is Bilbo in the Two Towers?) hopefully he is a good actor because we really didn't get a taste of what he was like in the other three movies but I'm sure that they were planning ahead for this just in case.
Maybe this movie will actually come out and this wasn't just a stupid magazine article.