Just as he did before shooting The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson is taking questions from fans about The Hobbit, on which his Weta studio in New Zealand is just beginning to ramp up preproduction. This time he's inviting along fellow bearded auteur Guillermo del Toro, who will be directing The Hobbit and its sequel, Hobbits Take Manhattan. The structure of the live chat — in which Jackson and Del Toro answer the twenty most popular questions asked by fans — means that most of the questions are going to be of the boring "Is Ian McKellen McKellening again?" variety. (Yes, he is.) Here are five questions we wish Jackson and Del Toro would answer.

1. As Ian Holm is probably too old to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, have you considered casting Ryan Gosling? He's not too fat to play a hobbit!

2. Can you explain how the second movie won't just be a bunch of Silmarillion-inspired filler crap?

3. Why, precisely, has Peter Dinklage never been cast in a Lord of the Rings movie?

4. Is Andy Serkis already at the Wellington Zoo studying iguanas so he can play Smaug the Dragon?

5. Surely, Guillermo, the Tolkien universe is big enough to include a Hellboy cameo, right?

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Party [Weta Holics]