The Hobbit in July 2007?

[Lalwendë]

Why shouldn't another director make a good job of it? We've already had a splendid BBC radio version of LotR, better than the films. Jackson doesn't 'own' the 'vision' of Middle-earth, we all do. Imagine if someone like Tim Burton got their hands on The Hobbit? Would be very interesting...

[Rikae]

Oh, no!

[Gil-Galad]

well it is true, The Hobbit is still going ahead as planned just with another director.

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Lalaith

From the Guardian this morning

It is a measure of just how big LotR is that this story made the national press in the UK within a day or so of Jackson's letter featuring on theonering.net. The same story made the third page of The Times today.



I would be rather sad not to see Jackson make the Hobbit film(s). But I must say that I deplore New Line's tactics in using the opportunity as an attempt to force the settlement of the royalties dispute. And Jackson is quite right that, had he agreed to that, it would have been completely the wrong basis upon which to go ahead with the project.

[Brinniel]

Originally Posted by Rikae

Bear in mind, this most likely means not only no WETA, but no McKellen or Serkis, either.

Originally Posted by Essex

and why not mckellen or serkis? does an actor have to stay loyal to a director? no of course not.

Indeed. One example I can think of is the Harry Potter movies. Now bear with me because I know we all have very different opinions on these movies (probably mostly negative), but I want to point out that the director has changed for every movie since Film 2. And yet, the entire cast as well as the production teams have for the most part remained involved with the films. In fact, as the directors have switched over the years, I think the films have actually improved.

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

I actually think this could be a blessing in disguise.

I think it's quite possible you could be right on this one. While I appreciated PJ's directing of LotR and thought he did a fantastic job, there are other directors out there who could do just as good. Or, God forbid, perhaps this new director, whoever he or she will be, just might outdo PJ and we could end up with something better than we ever expected.

Just because PJ is not involved, does not mean we should give up hope. At least a film for The Hobbit is certain to be made at all. We'll just have to wait and see what happens next...

[Rikae]

First off, it isn't certain PJ won't be...or so MGM says (it's on the TORn main page...it's late and I'm too lazy to link at the moment)...
and secondly: the LOTR cast is an entirely different animal than the HP cast. Every time they've mentioned doing the Hobbit, they have made a point of adding "with Peter and Fran" or similar.

[Thinlómien]

"Peter Jackson won't do the Hobbit" was one of the headlines in the Metro (one of those newspapers you get for free) in Finland. I'm very interested to see if there's anything of it in the biggest and most respected Finnish newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat...

I'm both relieved and disappointed by the news. The new director might do it much better, or much worse. I just hope that they hire a director with artistic vision and courage to show it on the screen.

Actually, I'm more relieved than disappointed. I'm not sure if The Hobbit, would have been a film I'd want to see directed by Jackson. PJ is good at doing epic action, and that's certainly not something I wish to see in The Hobbit. Just imagine a PJ-style action fight Bilbo vs. the spiders! The Hobbit is a fairytale and I want to see a fairytale in the theatres too.