The fantastic performance by Elijah Wood in Peter Jackson's adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy has set the bar for hobbit roles everywhere. Well before Frodo there was Bilbo, star of Guillermo del Toro's upcoming adaptation of "The Hobbit." When MTV's Josh Horowitz spoke to Wood at Sundance this week, he asked the "Rings" star who his pick would be for the as-yet-uncast role.

"I honestly love the initial rumor from way back when, which was James McAvoy," he said. Read more...

-- The Sundance Film Festival will add the Next section for next year's gathering. The category will showcase six to eight films which make "innovative and original" use of low-/no-budget features. I wonder if "District 9" would have made the cut. (Variety)

-- Buried in a report on the upcoming lineup for Dino De Laurentiis Co., it was revealed that an adaptation of Karen Russell's novel "St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves" is in the works. The story follows a group of girls raised by werewolves as they are being prepared to interact with civilized society. (Variety) Read more...

Tim Burton’s done comic book heroes, big budget futuristic adventures and sci-fi alien invasion stories, yet the director has never introduced one of his films into the hallowed halls of the geek-tastic carnival that bows down in worship to all those genres: Comic-Con. 2009, though, is going to be Burton’s year.

On Friday, July 24, Burton will pull on his producer’s cap and bring his post-apocalyptic animated escapade “9” to San Diego. And when he does, he’s hoping to get over a traumatic experience he had at the convention in the late ‘70s. Read more...

It's one of our most highly-anticipated movies, and now we've got another first look for the gloomy animated flick "9." Following nine ragdolls in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, we've already given you an exclusive two minute scene from the film. Now we're back with a brand new poster which you can see below. "9” stars Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer," and hits theaters 9/9/09.

Earlier this week, I joked about how every week seems to bring a new project for Leonardo DiCaprio. He has officially been beaten by "Twilight" veteran Cam Gigandet, who seems to snag a new project every single day. The latest finds him in Oscar-winning company, as Variety reports that Gigandet will join Adrien Brody, Elijah Wood and Forest Whitaker in "The Experiment."

"The Experiment" will be directed by Paul Scheuring ("Prison Break") from his own screenplay. It's a remake of the 2001 German film "Das Experiment," which centers on a group of ordinary men recruited to take part in a psychological research study. They're divided up and put into prison. Some land jobs as guards, others are locked up as prisoners, all with the intent of studying how they react to their assigned roles, and to positions of power and control. Read more...

If you haven't heard about director Shane Acker's "9," you should our exclusive clip below. The movie's features some super-cool art design and gorgeous CG animation. Now we have another tasty exclusive to share with you, a pair of images revealing Elijah Wood's title character, 9. Check out the official description right here and then proceed beyond the jump for the eye candy.

Made out of burlap, with detailed copper hands and feet, 9 is the most physically refined, emotionally attuned of the 9 stitch-punk beings – the closest to perfection. His curious, proactive nature causes him to oppose 1's strategy of hiding, opting instead for action and setting the stage for conflict over leadership of the group.

Based on Shane Acker's Academy Award-nominated short film of the same name, "9” follows nine ragdolls on a quest to save humanity in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Yup, you read that right, and while the description may cause you to scratch your head, one look at the film is all it takes to know there's something here worth watching.

Featuring the voice talents of Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer, "9” hits theaters in limited release on September 9 (in other words, 9/9/09). Below, take a look at the very first clip from "9," exclusively right here on MTV.com (click here to watch it in glorious high-definition). And when you're through with that, check out the equally spellbinding trailer here.

He's been a penguin with happy feet, and now Elijah Wood's next animated adventure is going to make him a ragdoll.

"I'm actually just finishing work on an animated film called '9,'" Wood told us when we caught up with him at Alicia Keys' Black Ball. "It's based on a short film Shane Acker did a number of years ago. It's a beautiful short."

Tim Burton is producing the full-length feature from Acker, one of the WETA Digital animators on "Return of the King," and Crispin Glover, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Martin Landau, and Christopher Plummer are among the other voice actors. Wood plays 9, one of nine mechanized rag dolls, "who kind of have the soul of humanity in them," he said. "It's basically about a post-apocalyptic world where machines created by man have destroyed mankind, and these nine ragdolls go about trying to find out what has happened and what these machines are about." Read more...

If it were just based on the book, there would be no room in "The Hobbit" for a lot of the characters from "Lord of the Rings" -- except, say, Bilbo, Gandalf, Elrond, and Gollum, of course -- but since they're expanding the film into a larger story, and drawing from other aspects of J.R.R. Tolkien's tales, Frodo could make an appearance in part two of "The Hobbit," Elijah Wood told us when we caught up with him at Alicia Keys' Black Ball benefit for Keep A Child Alive.

"The secondary film would bridge the gap between 'The Hobbit' and 'Lord of the Rings' chronologically," Wood said, "so conceivably, it could be possible."

Since the films are still being written, "it's a ways away" before he would know, Wood said, but the trick is to have Frodo's appearance not seem like an anachronism, since he wasn't a part of "The Hobbit" adventure. Read more...