Jackson Might Direct The Hobbit Films

Now that Guillermo del Toro has quit as director of The Hobbit, the search for a new director has begun. del Toro had to quit because he had obligations to other projects that the year delay in The Hobbit films would have interfered with. Peter Jackson has consistently said he has no intention of directing the two films but has now added a new caveat to it. New Zealand's Stuff reports that if a suitable replacement is not found. However, even that has problems as Jackson has his own obligations to deal with.

"If that's what I have to do to protect Warner Bros' investment, then obviously that's one angle which I'll explore," he said. But stepping in as director would be difficult as he had signed writer and director contracts with Hollywood studios for two other films, with one likely to begin next year. "The other studios may not let me out of the contracts."

"One of my best friends died about a year ago," Del Toro said. "The main thing we have in common was at age 11 we read The Hobbit. We used to spend many, many afternoons talking about how great it would be to make The Hobbit into a movie. So it was very personal to me."

Jackson said November was now the earliest start date for shooting, but it depended on finding the right director. "I just don't know now until we get a new director. The key thing is that we don't intend to shut the project down.

"We don't intend to let this affect the progress. Everybody, including the studio, wants to see things carry on as per normal. The idea is to make it as smooth a transition as we can."

Clearly Peter Jackson has a strong desire to see the films made but at this point the cruz of everything is the future of MGM which remains murky and does not seem close to being settled. I don't see another director committing to the films until MGM is settled to avoid the same circumstances that del Toro and Jackson are in with future projects being potentially negatively affected due to the lack of a concrete timeline to work off of.