By Ryan Parsons | Image property of respective holders.
The Hobbit
For those of you who had fingers crossed on whether Jackson would get behind the camera for The Hobbit, don't get your hopes up. Entertainment Weekly has posted their lowdown on The Hobbit and, besides giving some new details on the adaptation's production(s), they have confirmed with Jackson's agent that he won't be directing.
Peter Jackson to Produce, Not Direct, The Hobbit
Jackson and his life/creative partner Walsh have always envisioned the big-screen adaptation of The Hobbit as two movies. The first would deal with the 80-year old novel. The second, imagined entirely by Jackson and Walsh, would link the conclusion of The Hobbit to the start of the first Lord of the Rings book, The Fellowship of the Ring. New Line and Jackson will develop the properties over the next year with hopes of entering into pre-production by 2009 for a 2010 and 2011 release. No writers, including Jackson, Walsh, and their longtime partner Philippa Boyens, have been commissioned. (None can be, because of the strike.)
New Line has already decided that both films will be produced at the same time, in similar fashion to how the LOTR trilogy was put together, and no budgets have been assigned the films yet. According to New Line's co-chair Robert Shaye, "You can't budget an idea."
While Jackson might not be given the title of director, I can't help but think he'll be jumping back behind the camera from time to time as a very hands-on producer. This is his baby, and I can't imagine him easily handing it off. So, who does New Line have in mind to direct? If you have been keeping up with the updates, you have likely heard these names before.
Directors Sam Raimi (Spider-Man), Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth), and Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) are still the names that come up as alternate possibilities, but no official creative decision has been made.
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