With Guillermo del Toro stepping away from directing The Hobbit, the clear fallback director that was on everyone’s lips would be the man who brought Middle Earth to life – Peter Jackson.
But PJ says that he’s busy. Got stuff to do. He might if it looks like the film will fall apart without him, but he has his obligations that he doesn’t want to back out on, and doesn’t think they would let him if he did want to.
Jackson seems dead set against directing the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy unless his presence is absolutely necessary.
“If that’s what I have to do to protect Warner Bros’ investment, then obviously that’s one angle which I’ll explore.” This assumes that it’s even possible. He explains, “The other studios may not let me out of the contracts.”
Those other studios include TinTin which he is set to be directing as the planned production of Guillermo’s chapter of The Hobbit will take place.
As much as I wouldn’t mind Jackson returning to Middle Earth, the Hobbit has a completely different feel than the more serious Lord of the Rings. So I was hoping for a different director to really steer that feeling. Not that Jackson couldn’t shift gears, but just someone different.
Of course some people are now rallying to Neill Blomkamp after his success with District 9, but even Neill said he woudln’t entertain massive budget films controlled by studios.
I think that Sam Raimi would be a nice fit.
Who would you pick to direct The Hobbit?
