I’m sure this sudden turn around in the New Line – Jackson conflict has absolutely nothing to do with the low grosses of New Line’s other film, the seriously expensive fantasy epic The Golden Compass… I mean, that would just be cynical.
Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have reached agreement [sic] to make J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” a planned prequel to the blockbuster trilogy “The Lord of the Rings.”
Jackson, who directed the “Rings” trilogy, will serve as executive producer for “The Hobbit.” A director for the prequel films has yet to be named.
[…] Two “Hobbit” films are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, similar to how the three “Lord of the Rings” films were made. Production is set to begin in 2009 with a released planned for 2010, with the sequel scheduled for a 2011 release.
So that’s it, Jackson won’t be directing (for now anyway) but he will be involved. On a high level. Somehow. Of course, considering that he directed, produced and helped to write the original Rings trilogy makes this news perhaps not as comforting as it could have been. On the other hand, Steven Spielberg exec produced Transformers and that has his mark all over it…
What could have possibly made relations less than amicable (some might say unrelentingly frigid, but that’s just some) between these two parties that made so much, okay, bucket loads of money together? Read Entertainment Weekly’s cover story about the dispute.
Buttercups and Ravenwood 