The Hobbit: Peter Jackson Returns

Posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 by Peter Sciretta

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit

The rumors are true: Lord of the Rings trilogy filmmaker Peter Jackson and New Line have come to an agreement, and will band together to bring The Hobbit to the big screen, split over two live-action films. MGM and New Line will co-finance the project, with New Line handing North American distribution, and MGM handing the International. It is currently believed that Peter Jackson will not be available to direct either of the two films, as his schedule is full. The announcement says that Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as Executive Producers of two films, which will be shot simultaneously.

Spider-Man director Sam Raimi has been anxiously watching this project, and his future schedule is pretty much clear. Raimi has said that he wouldn’t be involved unless Jackson produced, and it looks like the perfect situation is now in place. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the Raimi announcement before Christmas.

Said Peter Jackson, “I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line.  ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a legacy we proudly share with Bob and Michael, and together, we share that legacy with millions of loyal fans all over the world.  We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth.  I also want to thank Harry Sloan and our new friends at MGM for helping us find the common ground necessary to continue that journey.”

Principal photography is tentatively set for a 2009 start with a production budget of $150 million per film. They are currently eyeing release dates in 2010 and 2011. It has been previously rumored that the film would be shot and released in 3D, although Jackson and New Line are keeping mum at this time.

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Action/Adventure, Adaptation, Deals, MGM, New Line, Sci-Fi, Sequels, , ,

  • Danatic
    Why are they splitting it into two movies? From what I remember it wasn't that 'epic' of a story...?
  • I can't remember reading that these would be two films. Still, it's not the end of the world because jackson has already proved himself with LoTR.
  • It's actually supposed to be, from what I understand, one movie for the story of "The Hobbit," and another for the various stories in between "The Hobbit," and "The Lord of the Rings" (like appendices stuff). Either that, or they'll intertwine the appendices stories they want to tell with that of The Hobbit so that it all spans over two films.
  • Mezz
    I have heard both rumors. One that it would be two movies out of the Hobbit story, which I think would be a huge mistake. This is the older of the two rumors, and at the time they were supposedly talking about changing the ending and adding stuff to fill out a second movie. I thought it was stupid to add stuff just to get a second movie. Don't add stuff and you have one movie.

    More recently, the rumors have been that one would be The Hobbit. The second would be stuff from apendicies/other material found in stuff like Book of Unfinished Tales than spans the years between The Hobbit and LOTRs. This seems like a better idea to me, but just doing The Hobbit as one movie still seems like the best idea to me.

    Either way, it is great news that after months and months of speculation, rumors, etc., Peter Jackson and New Line have finally put their differences aside. Even if he doesn't direct, just having his production company and WETA for the special effects is a big plus. But, Ian McKellan, Andy Serkis and even Hugo Weaving should all reprise their LOTR roles. Im not as high on Ian Holm playing the 60 year younger Bilbo, but if he hasn't aged much in those 60 years, he could probably pull it off, but will they want someone with more star power in the lead role? I don't know. They didn't really go for star power with LOTRs.
  • Sean
    I'm not satisfied until he is confirmed as director.
  • Sure, becoming director would be the best thing, but that will most likely not happen since he's tied up with other projects through the end of the decade. This really is the best we can hope for at this point.

    And you can be sure Jackson and his team will have heavy influence on whoever directs. Producers usually are very involved, and it will be greatly so in this case because most directors in hollywood know that Jackson is better than them at Middle Earth and will look to him for guidance.

    Also, Jackson did not direct every single scene in LOTR. With many scenes, second unit directors did the job and he was only a part of the editing and approval process.
  • Dan
    So, does this also finally open the door for Peter to work on the hi-def LotR Trilogy sets? The web rumors before the falling out had said the extended would be out on BluRay this past Nov with the theatrical versions only on HD-DVD. One of the producers had said they were saving a bunch of extras for the hi-def releases (bloopers, deleted scenes, etc) which had never been seen before. Hopefully, that project hasn't been lost in all of this.
  • Drewbdoo
    has anyone considered the possibility that the two movies are The Hobbit and the second being The Children of Hurin? When that came out, everyone and their mother were talking about what a good movie it would be (and it's true). It could be prequel and then SUPER prequel, lol. I think that would be the most logical thing since you could maybe even condense hurin down a bit and still have a prologue to talk about Berin and Lutheian
  • I'm reeeaaallly hoping Jackson will direct these films. It would be perfect to see his vision directly continued from the LOTR trilogy.
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