MGM on Jackson-directed 'Hobbit': "We can't imagi any other result" (NYT)

By Nancy Vialatte

Today’s New York Times looks at the mounting tension between New Line and Peter Jackson and the controversy surrounding Jackson's role in “The Hobbit.”

Producer Saul Zaentz meanwhile says he was misquoted by a German website regarding Jackson but that he does feel Jackson is the right man for the job. And, now MGM has weighed in too.

Jackson last week wrote a letter on a "Lord of the Rings" website explaining to fans that he would not be directing “The Hobbit” or a planned LOTR prequel.

The news sent shockwaves through the online LOTR community.

‘Within hours thousands of fans weighed in on lordotrings.com, onering.com and other sites, worrying about the future of the Tolkien enterprise and asking New Line, which has an option to produce the film until 2009, to back down. Theonering.net was among those calling for a boycott of any Hobbit film not made by Mr. Jackson. On the heels of the protest, reporters and entertainment bloggers called the studio to ask about the film’s fate. In what was once an insular club of power brokers and back-stabbers, the voices of outsiders — dancing across the globe at the speed of a modem — have begun to penetrate.'

New Line wouldn’t comment said the NYT but in a statement said “We are in litigation with Wingnut Films, and have been unsuccessful despite a formal mediation, as well as discussions with Wingnut directly to settle the matter; therefore, we cannot comment at this point.”

Although producer Saul Zaentz was quoted on a German website recently as saying that Jackson would indeed direct “The Hobbit” once the rights revert to him, he now tells the NYT that he was misquoted but that Jackson should be the one to direct “The Hobbit.” “We would like to see it done, of course with Peter Jackson. He’s a good film director. He’s the right guy. He knows it too. But it’s a hard thing to do, when you feel you didn’t get the money you were supposed to get.”

‘The contretemps over “The Hobbit,” those involved say, is really about the lawsuit over revenues from the “Lord of the Rings” series, which has taken in a staggering $2.9 billion in box office receipts alone.’

MGM, which owns distribution rights to “The Hobbit” has now chimed in saying, “We expect to partner with New Line in financing ‘The Hobbit.’ We support Peter Jackson as a filmmaker, and believe that when the dust settles, he’ll be making the movie. We can’t imagine any other result.”