The Hobbit (2009 film)

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Current event marker This article or section contains information about one or more scheduled or expected films. The content may change as the film's release approaches and more information becomes available. Upcoming film


The Hobbit
Written by Novel:
J. R. R. Tolkien
Distributed by - Worldwide -
MGM
Release date(s) 2009
Language English
IMDb profile

The Hobbit is an announced fantasy film that is going to be released around 2009 and will be based on J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit. New Line Cinema has rights to producing the movie while MGM retains the worldwide distribution rights.

[edit] Production status

In March 2005, Peter Jackson, director of the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy said that the beginning of shooting was at least three or four years away; he was shooting a remake of King Kong at the time.[1] Producer Saul Zaentz said in an interview with a German magazine on November 17, 2006 that the movie was definitely going to be made with Jackson at the helm and MGM executive Harry Sloan had given the release date as 2008 or 2009.[2]

New Line originally planned to have Jackson direct once he became available after directing his upcoming book adaption The Lovely Bones and the currently stalled Halo project, where he is acting as executive producer. However, on November 19, 2006 the well-known Lord of the Rings fansite TheOneRing.net, which has close ties with the New Zealand filmmaker, posted an e-mail from Peter Jackson in which he stated that New Line will be finding someone else to direct The Hobbit and a prequel to his The Lord of the Rings films.[3] In the e-mail Jackson and his wife Fran Walsh said New Line is actively looking to hire another film maker for both projects. The demise of the partnership was due to an ongoing lawsuit with the studios over accounting practices regarding profits Jackson deemed unjust from the first film in the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. [4] In an unexpected move Mark Ordesky, previously the executive producer liaison between the New Zealand based production and Hollywood for the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, informed Jackson that the studio decided to move on since the lawsuit was still pending and unresolved. Time was the major factor that hastened New Line's decision to boycott Jackson and his production house Wingnut Films due to the upcoming expiration of New Line's option to make the film. The option lasts until sometime at the end of 2007, and unless New Line officially begins production on the movie before the expiration date, the rights to adapt the book would fall back to the Saul Zaentz Company, who bought them in 1976 and owns Tolkien Enterprises.

Many fans responded quickly to the news, and many of them were not happy. These fans decried the decision, and the Sydney Morning Herald questioned if the lucrative film franchise could be successful without Jackson's creative and artistic direction.[5]

The distribution owner MGM Studios, furious from this conflict of interests with New Line, claims this is far from over[6] and defends Jackson along with Saul Zaentz to be the director behind the motion picture.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_national_story_skin/479050%3Fformat=html
  2. ^ http://www.elbenwald.de/index.php?page_name=NeuigkeitenDetails&product_id=2457
  3. ^ http://www.theonering.net/staticnews/1163993546.html
  4. ^ http://www.movieweb.com/news/12/15912.php
  5. ^ http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/jacksons-sidelining-raises-ire-of-shire-fans/2006/11/21/1163871403227.html
  6. ^ http://movies.go.com/variety/feature?featureid=861521

[edit] External links

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