Update on THE HOBBIT and Possible Change in the Ending

As we are waiting to hear if Peter Jackson is officially going to direct The Hobbit and if Martin Freeman takes the role of Bilbo Baggins, a couple new developments have come into the light that I thought I would share with you. There is still no solid confirmation of this new, but it comes from the always reliable source, TheOneRing.Net. The site claims that the following information comes from a "authentic casting document."

The first bit of news reveals that Peter Jackson may have changed the ending of the story to make the movie feel more cinematic. The second bit of news reveals that the movie will go into production in January, if everything goes well with MGM and Spyglass. Here's the report:

...if things go well with MGM and Spyglass in the next few weeks, 'The Hobbit' will head to production in January, pending negotiations with [Martin] Freeman and filming could tie up actors for a year. (January happens to be an excellent weather month to shoot at the Hobbiton set.)

And, inadvertently, we know of a possible change to the plot. The character summary says:

although . . . he doesn't have huge courage he does become, particularly in the last battle, very brave.

As readers will remember, Bilbo is mostly knocked out for "the last battle" which we can assume is The Battle of Five Armies. (That title would mean very little to some actors.) No filmmaker, definitely including producer and probable director Peter Jackson could resist filming and showing such a battle with all its action and emotional wallop, despite the titular character from the source glossing over it (and that is obvious with no spy information at all). But this information is a possible plot reveal that Bilbo will remain conscious and the 'film Bilbo' will get to see wonders of battle that 'book Bilbo' never did and perhaps play a brave role.

This definitely sounds like a plot change that Jackson would want to make. This could very well be true, but until there is confirmation we'll treat it as a rumor for now. If the change was made in the story, it doesn't really bother me at all, I think it's a good revision to the story and I welcome it. 

What do you all think of the possible change in The Hobbit?