The ongoing saga of the LOTR prequel took a massive swing into leftfield today, as it emerged that New Line – current owners of the rights to The Hobbit – have informed Peter Jackson and Wingnut Films that their services will not be needed “on the Hobbit and the LOTR 'prequel'”. In a letter to LOTR fansite TheOneRing.net, Jackson and co-writer Fran Walsh confirmed that due to an ongoing financial dispute over The Fellowship Of The Ring, New Line were now “actively looking to hire another filmmaker for both projects”.**
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Hang on a minute - both projects? Don't tell us they're working on The Silmarillion too. Well, not exactly - according to Jackson's letter, this would be a second prequel "covering the events leading up to those depicted in LOTR" and therefore, presumably, departing significantly from Tolkien's books - but hey ho.
“This outcome is not what we anticipated or wanted” said Wingnut. “We now have no choice but to let the idea of a film of The Hobbit go and move forward with other projects”. Bizarre. We have a feeling Ringers across the globe will have something to say about this…**
To read the statement in full, click here.