Peter Jackson Won’t Be Directing “The Hobbit”

New Line Cinema has told Peter Jackson “thanks but no thanks” in regards to directing the Lord of the Rings prequel (in essence that’s what The Hobbit is).

The way I see it – New Line can go in either one of two directions with this movie. They can go for a completely new look and feel from the highly successful Lord of the Rings movies – in which case nobody from that series of movies would be required for this movie. Or they could try and make this the fourth film in the LOTR series. In that case it is really only important to have Ian McKellen (Gandalf) and Andy Serkis (Gollum) back (since they are the only LOTR characters to also feature prominently in he Hobbit – Bilbo would be a younger actor instead of the older version of Bilbo played by Ian Holm).

I am a huge LOTR fan but I have no excitement in me for the release of this movie. Instead I think the time is more ripe for a LOTR satire movie along the lines of Airplane or The Naked Gun. That movie I’d pay to see.