Odds on new director being Brett Ratner: 3 to 1.
— Alan
I honestly have no problem with this whatsoever. Although I thought Jackson’s approach to the franchise was great there were some things that I felt could have been better. I could easily see a non PJ Hobbit film being perfectly fine. It may suck and it may be great. Whatevs.
Well, that’s a shame, but I can’t imagine it would have lived up to expectations.
Seriously, Jackson had his run with 3 nice movies. I’m not sure a new Hobbit movie from Jackson or anyone else would excite me.
Most likely I’ll end up seeing The Hobbit regardless of who directs it.
The impact of this decision on native NZ actors and actresses looking for work will be significant.
Worst news ever. Although I’m not sure this is really over - this may be a negotiating move to covet popular opinion.
I hated Jackson’s King Kong, but he really nailed the Lord of the Rings movies.
As long as New Line retains WETA Workshop to do the special effects and CGI stuff as in the trilogy, they should be OK with another director. After seeing the unparalled success of the trilogy, I sincerely doubt New Line would hire anyone that wanted to put a signature stamp on the new films by going in different direction creatively.
Sounds like a move by New Line to save some $$$ upfront on any new films in the mythos it decides to produce.
I have seen fifty bajuillion hours of Peter North Jackson’s vision of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Someone else should get to do the Hobbit. It’s only fair. Otherwise, it’s like letting him drink all the good Soda, and then finish the RC. Sharing is caring.
The quality of a movie is 100% correlated with the quality of the director. Good directors may not hit home runs every time, but lesser directors are actually incapable of producing a good film, and will continue to produce souless dreck.
New Line is taking the stupidest gamble ever by not going with Jackson - each one of the LotR movies made a BILLION dollars! Why risk screwing up such a colossal success?
Having some hack fuck up this setting, and this franchise, will be really depressing. I would MUCH PREFER that they do not make the Hobbit or any related Middle Earth projects.
I don’t know Desslock…maybe I just don’t have much invested in it being “great” because if I did I would probably agree that PJ should direct. I’d just rather see somebody else’s take on the whole thing.
P.S. By the way I liked your oblivion column in one of the recent PCGamers
I think Desslock is wildly overstating his point. Now God knows I loved Jackson’s trilogy, but there are other directors who I’d also love to see tackle The Hobbit - Alfonso Cuarón and Terry Gilliam off the top of my head, but I could probably think of about a hundred others. (Spike Jones? Michael Gondry?)
He’s also conveniently ignoring what a crazy pick Jackson was to direct these movies in the first place, considering he was basically unknown outside horror movie circles in North America. Sure, we were all hoping it was going to be as good as Heavenly Creatures, but there was always the chance it was going to be closer to Meet The Feebles.
Except New Line didn’t pick Jackson, Jackson picked New Line (so to speak). Without him, there weren’t any LOTR films to be made, period.
— Alan
I have to agree that this is probably all about PR and pressure for settling the lawsuit. What a byzantine thing that accounting world must be? This seems to happen over and over. Hey, where’s the money for the 100,000 plastic Lurtz’s you sold!
I wonder how Jackson personally feels about the property? Is it something he really doesn’t care about walking away from or does he feel protective of what he’s already created and uneasy about somebody bothching a movie that everybody will closely associate with his trilogy?
What’s sort of interesting is that there is leeway to invent a second film prequel. If you have that much latitude why not get somebody to turn the Silmarilion into something coherent and understandable. Watching the fall of Gondolin would be very cool.
meet the feebles is way better than LOTR.
Exactly - they are entirely the product of his (and his partners) creative vision. It was actually a really hard sell to get those movies made in the first place.
You can’t take an ass-backwards approach of just popping in a director, even a competent one, and telling him what to create – if it’s not driven by genuine creative vision, it’ll be, at best, a pale, soulless, shallow imitation. I won’t complain as vigorously if it’s Alfonso Cuaron – and there have been other directors, like James Cameron with Aliens, who stepped into a franchise that already had a strong creative vision and, without bastardizing what came before, managed to impose his own, unique creative vision for the project, but that’s pretty damn rare.
And Lord of the Rings is far less likely to be inherited successfully by anyone else because of how uniquely Jackson treated the property – an incredible zealot’s attention to detail, serious approach to the subject matter, focus on effective casting – I hate the prospect of someone else’s comparatively cartoonish approach, casting “more marketable” stars, etc. Fuck, just make your own fantasy movie in a different setting, and I’ll approach it with a more open mind, otherwise I’ll be ferociously rooting for this project to die.
- thanks Spoofychop!
King Kong was a steaming pile of shite. Jackson isn’t a directorial deity.
I said the same thing about Kong earlier in this thread, but he really nailed the LotR trilogy. When someone creates something so distinctive, so successfully, it’s absurd to think you can replicate it with someone else.
Its possible to go in a new direction with a franchise and end up with something good like the latest Batman movie, which granted since the 2 before sucked so bad they had nowhere to go but up. On the other hand though you can end up with something like X-men 3.
Another group could try to do it, but with the Jackson, Wetaworks/Wetadigital combo I just don’t know.
Desslock: I give you 20 minutes of hobbit-and-man-love, on a bed, in an Elven village.
I’m in agreement with Desslock (he’s crazy though!). Peter Jackson got LOTR. He completely and totally got the feel of the books, even with the changing of the story. They were an incredible adaptation of a book / set of books. Maybe the best book to film translation with staying close to the source material ever.
The Hobbit won’t be the same without him. A director almost always makes or breaks a movie.