Seriously, I would think Jackson should just take over, No one will protest.

And Del Toro…?
Hellboy III, Doctor Strange or whatever you will do…do it. I’m still looking forward to any project with your name on it.

You know what punk, when you put it like that it makes perfect sense and I agree with you. I havent kept apprised of the situation and what was happening and it’s obvious you have more knowledge in that area than I.

I am not happy about Del Toro leaving, but I can see there were other factors at play here besides the six year commitment.

But what does that mean: a ‘bridge’ to the LotR films? What’s the point?

Isn’t The Hobbit enough? The fans aren’t clamoring for a bridge film, and it won’t have the Tolkien pedigree. It just seems like a waste of resources, and here we see the results of that poor decision: Del Toro has quit because he couldn’t meet the demands of making two films at once.

Anyway, I don’t buy the bridge stuff. It doesn’t make sense. The point of filming two films at once is to take advantage of actors, sets, props, manpower, etc. If the characters are all different, if the storyline is different, if the setting is different, then any additional filming is just that: additional. Why would a director split his time between two completely different films at the same time? It doesn’t make sense.

Nope, I think they were planning to drag The Hobbit out into two films, and in order to do that, they would have had to stuff the film with new material from other middle-earth books. My guess is they probably would have told the story of Smaug and the Dwarves of Lonely Mountain or something.

Aren’t they making the second film a “bridge” for the LOTR films? So two films would be better.

Well, I think it was a terrible decision to try to squeeze 2 movies out of The Hobbit. Its a lean story to begin with, and it simply does not call for more than 3 hours, nor does it lend itself to being cut in two.

When delays started mounting, they should have gone back to the script and put together one 3 hour film (with an optional 4 hour director’s cut).

Unfortunately, I think they were trying to exploit the property for maximum earnings, at the expense of the story.

I totally understand that six years is a long time, but I see the Hobbit eclipsing LOTR, so putting in six years to make history doesnt seem so bad. Ultimately this is the studios fault for the continued delays.

Either that or Peter Jackson can just direct himself.