After the marathon of moviemaking that was The Lord of the Rings trilogy, writer-director Peter Jackson was uniquely qualified to tackle J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit, which he and fellow screenwriters Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Guillermo del Toro decided would be split into two films. The first of these, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, will make its world premiere in New Zealand November 28th, 2012, with this prequel’s sequel, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, hitting theaters the winter of 2013. But now, after 266 days of production that kicked off in March of 2011, both films have officially wrapped on principal photography.
Jackson announced the monumental event on his Facebook page, proclaiming:
