Rumors have been furiously circulating that Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro would be announcing who would be playing Bilbo Baggins in their upcoming prequel, “The Hobbit,” at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego.  Daniel Radcliffe, James McAvoy and David Tennant have all been named as possible candidates.

But Jackson was quick to put a stop to it in an interview Friday with Empire.

“No, we won’t be announcing Bilbo for a little while,” he said, “We’re starting to think about casting, but we’re knee-deep in the script right now.  And when we do go to actors, they’re probably going to ask to see a script, so we’re powering ahead with getting the first draft done.”

He was also asked what projects he’ll be tackling after “The Lovely Bones.”  “I haven’t yet decided what I’ll be directing after that. At the moment we’re concentrating on writing a couple of little movies with Guillermo [Del Toro]. A couple of small films! (Laughs) And that’s going to take us another few months of writing to do.

“But we are developing a couple of projects which are potentially films that I’d direct for next year.  “Temeraire” is still on the cards. But those are really taking a second place at the moment…”

“Temeraire” is Jackson’s adaptation of Naomi Novik’s fantasy-lit saga, in which French and English forces wage the Napoleonic wars with enormous battle-dragons.