Apparently so. During a recent BD Live chat, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro talked to fans about the production of his upcoming "The Hobbit," which he says will start filming in 2010 and for "about 370 days or so."

Del Toro answered quite a few interesting questions, including what one of the big challenges will be in making this film.

"The challenge is to create and expand a massive universe and be as immersive as the Trilogy was. To approach Tolkien’s book with the right mixture of reverence, enthusiasm and invention," he wrote.

When asked about his approach to special effects, here's what he had to type: "You will see some mind-boggling mixture of CGI / Puppetry like never before. The demarcation of where one technique ends and the other begins will NOT be as clean as in "Hellboy II" or "Blade II" or "Pan's Labyrinth." I am going to push further than ever on both fronts."

Well, well, that sure sounds interesting enough. For more del Toro answers to cool questions, head over to bilbohobbit.com, which posted the entire chat transcript.