Hopefully they get everything sorted out before too long.

Good story. I can't believe both sides aren't chomping at the bit to make this no matter what. I understand the differences, but with a guaranteed BILLION dollar hit, plus built-up fan anticipation, they're nuts not to do it. I couldn't imagine watching The Hobbit done by anyone other than Jackson. I honestly don't think anyone else could pull it off, and have it match LotR, like Jackson would.

If so - I hope he rebounds from the bloated and disappointing RotK and King Kong.

so... do you think Andy Serkis will do both Gollum and the voice of Smaug

I don't really think Jackson needs to direct it for it to be a great film. The source material is already excellent.

I just wish they'd stop the petty squabbling and make the damn movie.

People need to not get riled up. The news that EW is reporting is at least a week old. I am fairly positive Jackson is not literally talking about The Hobbit, but he is mending things with New Line, and the audit he wanted is taking place. Another website said that New Line produced "two thirds of a box" of documents and claimed that's all there was but an independent investigator found "seven to ten cabinets" full of other documents that New Line failed to produce. Maybe this business is more rough-and-tumble and soulless than I imagine but I think not only is this case far from over I find it somewhat hard to believe that if New Line keeps having lies upturned like this that Jackson will really want to partner with them on a movie.

As the article points out (at the very end), PJ's already booked with "The Lovely Bones" started production shortly, thereafter followed closely by "Tintin". Contractual rights to The Hobbit revert to Zaentz in 2010 (probably), that's only two years from now. New Line has to take action before then. I don't see how PJ will have time to do The Hobbit.

I guess they could bump Tintin or do it with someone else, but even then the timing looks almost impossible. Even assuming they had a script completed by the middle of next year, that still only leaves a year to make The Hobbit. Ain't gonna happen.

Pretty sure Jackson is just producing Tintin, so there should be no conflict with him getting directing The Hobbit.

Both Jackson and Spielberg are supposed to direct a Tintin movie each. Not sure who bats first though.

Looks like it's finally happening. Peter Jackson will not Direct though but he will produce so that certainly sucks.
From comingsoon.net
"Academy Award-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson; Harry Sloan, Chairman and CEO, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM); Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs of New Line Cinema have jointly announced today that they have entered into the following series of agreements:

* MGM and New Line will co-finance and co-distribute two films, The Hobbit and a sequel to The Hobbit. New Line will distribute in North America and MGM will distribute internationally.

* Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as Executive Producers of two films based on The Hobbit. New Line will manage the production of the films, which will be shot simultaneously.

* Peter Jackson and New Line have settled all litigation relating to the "Lord of the Rings" (LOTR) Trilogy.

Said Peter Jackson, "I'm very pleased that we've been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line. 'The Lord of the Rings' is a legacy we proudly share with Bob and Michael, and together, we share that legacy with millions of loyal fans all over the world. We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth. I also want to thank Harry Sloan and our new friends at MGM for helping us find the common ground necessary to continue that journey."

"Peter Jackson has proven himself as the filmmaker who can bring the extraordinary imagination of Tolkien to life and we full heartedly agree with the fans worldwide who know he should be making 'The Hobbit,'" said Sloan, MGM's Chairman and CEO. "Now that we are all in agreement on 'The Hobbit,' we can focus on assembling the production team that will capture this phenomenal tale on film."

Bob Shaye, New Line Co-Chairman and Co-CEO comments, "We are very pleased we have been able to resolve our differences, and that Peter and Fran will be actively and creatively involved with 'The Hobbit' movies. We know they will bring the same passion, care and talent to these films that they so ably accomplished with 'The Lord of the Rings' Trilogy."

"Peter is a visionary filmmaker, and he broke new ground with 'The Lord of the Rings,'" notes Michael Lynne, New Line Co-Chairman and Co-CEO. "We're delighted he's back for 'The Hobbit' films and that the Tolkien saga will continue with his imprint. We greatly appreciate the efforts of Harry Sloan, who has been instrumental in helping us reach our new accord."

The two "Hobbit" films – The Hobbit and its sequel – are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, with pre-production beginning as soon as possible. Principal photography is tentatively set for a 2009 start, with the intention of The Hobbit release slated for 2010 and its sequel the following year, in 2011.

The Oscar-winning, critically-acclaimed LOTR Trilogy grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide at the box-office. In 2003, "Return of the King" swept the Academy Awards, winning all of the eleven categories in which it was nominated, including Best Picture – the first ever Best Picture win for a fantasy film. The Trilogy's production was also unprecedented at the time.

For more information about "The Hobbit" films, visit TheHobbitBlog.com."

That HobbitBlog link just redirects to Newline.com.

So we're just talking about The Hobbit Parts I & II, right? Not actually a sequel, per se.

All of this sounds perfect... except that Jackson's not directing. At this point the only other director I would trust to do this justice is Guillermo Del Toro, and I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility he could do it. The guy has a literal ton of projects on his slate, but something tells me he'd wipe a lot of that clean to work on this. One can only hope...

I certainly hope so... I can't imagine a more disastrous ending to an otherwise great series of movies than making up some sort of sequel to tack on.

Good news...hope there's not some crazy "sequel" written though...

The Hobbit II: Burgle Harder

Executive Producer title seems like he won't really be involved, but having his name attached should at least help gather many who worked on the LOTR movies. It will be interesting to see who is tapped to direct.

Is Ian Holm up for this? I don't recall a great deal of action that Bilbo was specifically involve in, but it's been a while. It would just be fantastic to see him and McKellen reprise their roles.

so is New Line greenlighting this, since 'Golden Compass' has been underperforming. They need to stop being assholes and just get this film made for the tons of loyal fans (more guarenteed than GC's fans/readers).

I just hope they don't screw up Smog.

I wonder if Jackson will use the director he was going to use when he was producing the Halo movie, Neil Blomkamp. Not sure if his style fits in with the rest of the movies, but at least he'll get the kid some work.

At first I was thinking that Ian Holm wouldn't HAVE to be involved since The Hobbit is set like 50 or 60 years before The Lord of the Rings so they could just get a younger actor, but then I remembered that the ring caused Bilbo not to age so he looked more or less the same at the time of the Fellowship of the Ring as he did at the time of The Hobbit.

Assuming Ian could handle the physical parts all the makeup artists would have to do would be to make him look how he did back in 2000 or whenever The Fellowship of the Ring was made.

By the way what's the deal with parts 1 and 2? From what I remember about The Hobbit it's a pretty straight forward book that could EASILY be done in one 2.5-3 hour movie. I just don't think there's enough material to make two 2 to 2.5 hour plus movies which would end up putting the final movie at 4 or even more than 5 hours. I can't imagine they'd be so greedy as to release 2 hour and a half long movies but I also can't imagine they'd come up with some kind of rinkydink sequel either.

ahem it's Smaug.

The Golden Compass is a far cry from The Hobbit.

People have been waiting for a Hobbit movie for years and got even more excited about it once Lord of the Rings was finished.

Golden Compass underperformed because nobody knew about or cared about the story.

^ Right. They even made the point in FOTR that Bilbo "hasn't aged a day".