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VirginiaHuguenot · #7 (**permalink**) 12-19-2007, 07:37 AM

Follow the movie-making saga here. From an Entertainment Weekly article:

Quote:

Jackson and his life/creative partner [Fran] 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 MGM and New Line want to keep Jackson's involvement in the film as broad as possible, hinting that he may take up both writing and directing responsibilities, Jackson's manager Ken Kamins told Hollywood Insider that Jackson won't be directing the films. "Peter won't be directing because he felt the fans have waited long enough for The Hobbit. It will take the better part of every day of the next four years to write, direct and produce two Hobbit films. Given his current obligations to both The Lovely Bones and Tintin, waiting for Peter, Fran, and Phillippa to write, direct and produce The Hobbit would require the fans wait even longer."

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 possiblities, but no official creative decision has been made.