Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Peter Jackson NOT directing "The Hobbit"??!?!?

I must say that being a HUGE fan of Lord of the Rings, I probably will not even goto see The Hobbit if Peter Jackson isn't involved.

Here is a letter he wrote to theonering.net which is a LOTR fan site. It explains everything.

I am extremly sad at the moment

"Dear One Ringers,

As you know, there's been a lot of speculation about The Hobbit. We are often asked about when or if this film will ever be made. We have always responded that we would be very interested in making the film - if it were offered to us to make.

You may also be aware that Wingnut Films has bought a lawsuit against New Line, which resulted from an audit we undertook on part of the income of The Fellowship of the Ring. Our attitude with the lawsuit has always been that since it's largely based on differences of opinion about certain accounting practices, we would like an independent body - whether it be a judge, a jury, or a mediator, to look at the issues and make an unbiased ruling. We are happy to accept whatever that ruling is. In our minds, it's not much more complex than that and that's exactly why film contracts include right-to-audit clauses.

However, we have always said that we do not want to discuss The Hobbit with New Line until the lawsuit over New Line's accounting practices is resolved. This is simple common sense - you cannot be in a relationship with a film studio, making a complex, expensive movie and dealing with all the pressures and responsibilities that come with the job, while an unresolved lawsuit exists.

We have also said that we do not want to tie settlement of the lawsuit to making a film of The Hobbit. In other words, we would have to agree to make The Hobbit as a condition of New Line settling our lawsuit. In our minds this is not the right reason to make a film and if a film of The Hobbit went ahead on this basis, it would be doomed. Deciding to make a movie should come from the heart - it's not a matter of business convenience. When you agree to make a film, you're taking on a massive commitment and you need to be driven by an absolute passion to want to get the story on screen. It's that passion, and passion alone, that gives the movie its imagination and heart. To us it is not a cold-blooded business decision.

A couple of months ago there was a flurry of Hobbit news in the media. MGM, who own a portion of the film rights in The Hobbit, publicly stated they wanted to make the film with us. It was a little weird at the time because nobody from New Line had ever spoken to us about making a film of The Hobbit and the media had some fun with that. Within a week or two of those stories, our Manager Ken Kamins got a call from the co-president of New Line Cinema, Michael Lynne, who in essence told Ken that the way to settle the lawsuit was to get a commitment from us to make the Hobbit, because "that's how these things are done". Michael Lynne said we would stand to make much more money if we tied the lawsuit and the movie deal together and this may well be true, but it's still the worst reason in the world to agree to make a film.

Several years ago, Mark Ordesky told us that New Line have rights to make not just The Hobbit but a second "LOTR prequel", covering the events leading up to those depicted in LOTR. Since then, we've always assumed that we would be asked to make The Hobbit and possibly this second film, back to back, as we did the original movies. We assumed that our lawsuit with the studio would come to a natural conclusion and we would then be free to discuss our ideas with the studio, get excited and jump on board. We've assumed that we would possibly get started on development and design next year, whilst filming The Lovely Bones. We even had a meeting planned with MGM executives to talk through our schedule.

However last week, Mark Ordesky called Ken and told him that New Line would no longer be requiring our services on the Hobbit and the LOTR 'prequel'. This was a courtesy call to let us know that the studio was now actively looking to hire another filmmaker for both projects.

Ordesky said that New Line has a limited time option on the film rights they have obtained from Saul Zaentz (this has never been conveyed to us before), and because we won't discuss making the movies until the lawsuit is resolved, the studio is going to have to hire another director.

Given that New Line are committed to this course of action, we felt at the very least, we owed you, the fans, a straightforward account of events as they have unfolded for us.

We have always had the greatest support from The Ringers and we are very sorry our involvement with The Hobbit has been ended in this way. Our journey into Tolkien's world started with a phone call from Ken Kamins to Harvey Weinstein in Nov 1995 and ended with a phone call from Mark Ordesky to Ken in Nov 2006. It has been a great 11 years.

This outcome is not what we anticipated or wanted, but neither do we see any positive value in bitterness and rancor. We now have no choice but to let the idea of a film of The Hobbit go and move forward with other projects.

We send our very best wishes to whomever has the privilege of making The Hobbit and look forward to seeing the film on the big screen.

Warmest regards to you all, and thanks for your incredible support over the years.

We got to go there - but not back again ...

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh"

What are your guys' thoughts, do you care who directs that movie? In my personal opinion, Jackson is the reason why LOTR was so huge.

New Line and the rest wants their moneys. They wants it. Their preciousssss.

I would rather see Jackson direct The Hobbit but I'll also admit I'm very interested in "LOTR prequel".

Make of the following what you will:

Yesterday we brought you the depressing and unfortunate news that New Line has cast aside Peter Jackson as a potential director for their new Lord of the Rings project, a prequel based on Tolkien’s first book “The Hobbit”. There’s a catch though… New Line Cinema doesn’t own the rights to make The Hobbit. Well not all of them.

It’s long been a point of some confusion among LOTR fans, but apparently New Line shares the rights with MGM and the two studios have been in hot debate over which of them will get to make it ever since LOTR arrived and theaters and made New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson filthy stinking rich. So when New Line says they aren’t going to make The Hobbit with Peter Jackson, that assumes that they’re making the movie at all. MGM could still end up making it.

With New Line earning the ire of fans for foolishly pissing off PJ, MGM is now more than happy to play the good guy. In response to New Line’s decision, they released a statement to Variety which says the following: “the matter of Peter Jackson directing 'The Hobbit' films is far from closed.” Apparently New Line has MGM more than a little pissed, since MGM has been screaming for months that they, not New Line Cinema would be the ones to make a Hobbit movie.

The whole business with New Line and Peter Jackson is all because of a money grubbing lawsuit ongoing between the two, and really should have nothing to do with MGM anyway. But New Line has now spoken as if The Hobbit is theirs, and PJ has responded to them as if they are indeed the only players in The Hobbit game. And frankly, Jackson doesn’t sound all that interested in fighting to make The Hobbit anyway.

Which leaves MGM standing alone in the street holding a bag full of stuffed Smaug dolls. If MGM makes the movie, it sounds like they are at least interested in getting Jackson. But who knows if they’ll be the ones to make it and even if they do, at this point Jackson doesn’t sound that interested in making it. It’s almost as if he’s using the whole New Line business as a convenient excuse for him to get out of making it without pissing off his devoted Lord of the Rings fan base. Call me jaded, but MGM’s statements now make me really skeptical about the whole thing. To me, it seems like both Jackson and New Line are trying to use the ire of fans as a way of forcing the other side into giving them their way with the ongoing LOTR mega-profits lawsuit and none of this really has anything to do with The Hobbit or LOTR fans.

In better news, Peter Jackson’s production company WETA has told The One Ring that even if Peter doesn’t make the film they’d still be available to do the effects work on The Hobbit. WETA head honcho Richard Taylor tells OneRing, “We're hopeful that we may be invited to work on The Hobbit. There's nothing more that we would like to do in our careers.” So even if PJ doesn’t direct, having WETA involved might mean at least some chance of achieving a similar, contiguous look throughout all four Lord of the Rings films.

source: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/MGM-Wants-Peter-Jackson-For-Hobbit-3928.html


In any event it won't stop me from seeing the movies whenever they come out.

On a more positive note people's reaction stopped that O.J. trash tv show so maybe the millions of millions of Ring fans can have a positive impact as well.

I wouldn't let Peter Jackson direct traffic.

Bren R.

I wouldn't mind having a bag of stuffed Smaug dolls, myself. For stocking stuffers.

I think jackson would be more than happy to do the next 2 films for the series. He has a passion for tolkien's writing and his passion is shown throughout the epic LOTR movies.

To say that he doesn't want anything to do with it is just obserd, he spent how many years devoting himself to this project? 1995 - 2003, 8 years. I think he would love to continue.