Just when we thought everything might be on track, along comes financial reality to pee on our pizza. While well-known wizard (and newly minted Empire Icon) Sir Ian McKellen had announced a July start date for shooting on the two-film Hobbit production, now it appears the film(s) won’t kick off until the end of the year.

The Playlist has collected a couple of clues, one from Andy Serkis, and one from the fact that McKellen’s site now simply says the shoot will happen “at a time to be announced.”

Plus, the dedicated followers of all things Tolkien over at The One Ring have confirmed that the continuing financial struggles of MGM, which owns the distribution rights to the film, are having a serious impact. The company is currently on the auction block, trying to sell off its assets to balance out some massive debts, so it’s unlikely it can be ready in time to gear up a 2011 release.

Of course, given how Hobbit rumours have worked in the past, we now wait to hear from Peter Jackson or Guillermo del Toro on whether it’s true, but it sounds disturbingly like we really are going to have to wait a little longer. Stupid scheduling issues-es! We hates it! Studios hates us! No, studios loves us...