Peter Jackson Not To Direct ‘The Hobbit’

In a letter to TheOneRing.net Peter Jackson, director of the “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy, officially announced that he would not be directing the movie incarnation of the LOTR prequel “The Hobbit” even though he wishes to.

The main reason why he and his company Wingnut Films won’t be making this movie is a financial dispute with NewLine over the money made from “The Fellowship of the Ring”. Wingnut believe they deserve a bigger cut of the profit and are suing NewLine for it.

NewLine offered to tie the settlement of the dispute with the making of “The Hobbit” and to negociate a new deal accordingly, but Wingnut refused that and said they wanted to first settle the lawsuit on it’s own without being tied to a new deal.

Peter Jacksons says about this:

“…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.”

And as NewLine say they only have the rights to make “The Hobbit” and another LOTR prequel for a limited period of time, they will be proceeding on the new Hobbit films without Wingnut.

I think it’s a shame that it won’t be Peter Jackson and his team revisiting Middle Earth and the Shire to bring the magic of “The Hobbit” to our screens.
I’ve been looking forward to this movie ever since I read the book and the LOTR trilogy ended, and I knew that it would be a great experience in the hands of Peter Jackson.
Anyway, I hope whoever takes the helm of this project realizes the responsability he has on his shoulders, and the kind of quality he has to live up to, and does something really good with it.