This in from Lizerne Guiting: LOTR fans have two things to look forward to in 2010 and 2011—Tolkien’s The Hobbit and its sequel, just announced for production in 2009. But instead of working behind the camera, Peter Jackson is producing rather than directing, claiming he couldn’t meet the release dates and didn’t want to delay them for fans (the drama from the lawsuit he filed against New Line for not receiving his share of income for the films didn’t help, either). That’s either good (you need your Hobbit fix sooner than later) or bad (who else could create a Middle-earth so magical?).

Furthermore, doesn’t it make you wonder why there are two Hobbit movies going into production even though there’s only one book? Would they split the book in two, or somehow make a bridge movie to Fellowship of the Ring?


Peter Jackson to produce J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit



All this speculation leaves us with the lingering question of who’s going to direct. Guillermo Del Toro made a great impression with the whimsical yet dark Pan’s Labyrinth. He’s the name most movie blogs seem to be echoing. What about someone totally outside the genre? I would venture to say Paul Greengrass would do a good job. Just take a look at the Bourne franchise. That man knows how to make sequels—with none of the weepy sentimentality.

It’s just too bad Jackson will never know what it’s like to be "there and back again." This was his precious, after all.