After years of speculation and rumors that were touched off almost immediately following the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, New Line Cinema and MGM Pictures have announced that a two-film version of The Hobbit (that’s right — TWO parts!!) will be happening, with Peter Jackson at the helm. Early on, there were no direct (public) plans to make The Hobbit. Then, there was acknowledged interest by all parties but Jackson and New Line got into a messy legal dispute about profits owed from the previous Lord of the Rings movies. Now, the two sides have apparently settled their differences and the green light has been given. However, Jackson has stated that he does not want to direct the films because he has obligations to other projects that would keep The Hobbit from being released in time for its initial 2010 projection. This has led to early speculation of Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) and Sam Raimi (Evil Dead/Army of Darkness and Spiderman trilogies) as possible directorial candidates.

Of course, the top online news/blog/rumor source for all things LOTR-related during the fervor and excitement for the original movies, theonering.net, is buzzing once again at this news after a long period of relative dormancy. Check it out for all the latest!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Geek, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.