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New Line Cinema is looking for a director other than Peter Jackson to helm The Hobbit and a planned prequel to Lord of the Rings:
In a letter to a Tolkien website, Jackson and his producing and writing partner Fran Walsh said that they had received a call from an executive at New Line, the studio behind the three films, telling them that their services would not be required on either The Hobbit or a planned prequel to the original trilogy.A pox on New Line!"This was a courtesy call to let us know that the studio was now actively looking to hire another film-maker for both projects," the film-makers wrote in a letter to Theonering.net. "This outcome is not what we anticipated or wanted, but neither do we see any positive value in bitterness and rancour. We now have no choice but to let the idea of a film of The Hobbit go and move forward with other projects."
Comments (6)
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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 21, 2006 at 12:02 AM
© Tuesday November 21, 2006 at 12:02 AM SF Signal
Jackson nearly ruined LOTR. He took too much of the magic out of the story.
Worst scene: The Witchkings defeat....terrible!!!
Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday November 21, 2006 at 8:45 AM at 8:45 AM
Ultimately I think this is a non-event. The saga will continue - Jackson might well be involved still (the dispute is about money, after all). And if not and they make The Hobbit with somebody else and it sucks, well, no big deal. It doesn't detract from the LOTR movies.
What scares me more is the thinking that there would be a prequel to LOTR that would be completely made up to bridge the time between Hobbit and Fellowship. Blech.
As for The Hobbit, the Rankin-Bass version is fine for me anyway (with John Huston as Gandalf - who can complain?) Warning to John - there are lots of songs in this movie. 
And when did this become FantasySignal? I decided against posting this news because I figured it was off-topic ;).
Posted by Scott on Tuesday November 21, 2006 at 9:26 AM at 9:26 AM
Hehe, I knew that would come back! 
Posted by Scott on Tuesday November 21, 2006 at 1:50 PM at 1:50 PM
Here's David Louis Edelman's take
Posted by John on Thursday November 30, 2006 at 1:37 AM at 1:37 AM
The latest: New Line Blacklists Jackson
Posted by John on Thursday January 11, 2007 at 12:47 AM at 12:47 AM