Each of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films was allocated its own name. Now it seems that the film-maker's forthcoming pair of Hobbit films may also be individually monikered.

JRR Tolkien fan site theonering.net reports that New Line Studios, the Warner Brothers offshoot that is co-producing the two movies alongside MGM, has registered titles for the new project. It has not been confirmed that either will be used when the movies hit cinemas in 2012 and 2013, but for what it's worth, they are The Hobbit: There and Back Again and The Hobbit: An/The Unexpected Journey.

At first glance, the two titles do not appear to be obvious names for separate instalments, though each would be a fitting tag for the project as a whole. There and Back Again is Tolkien's own alternative title for The Hobbit, while "My Unexpected Journey" is one of Bilbo Baggins's discarded titles for the fictional Red Book of Westmarch, a manuscript detailing the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings from the perspectives of their protagonists.

The three Lord of the Rings films were subtitled The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King, using the individual names of Tolkien's own trilogy. The author did not separate The Hobbit into two parts, and the forthcoming film's division has been subject to muchspeculation among fans and bloggers.

Jackson starts shooting The Hobbit in New Zealand later this month after years of delays caused by funding problems at MGM, major union disputes and a fire that destroyed a number of vital miniatures. Jackson also spent time in a Wellington hospital earlier this year recovering from a stomach ulcer.

Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis are confirmed to return as wizard Gandalf and the creature Gollum respectively. The Office's Martin Freeman is to play Bilbo Baggins, a homebody hobbit who is unexpectedly dragged into an adventure by Gandalf and a company of treasure-seeking dwarfs.