Peter Jackson is making The Hobbit movie

This is great news! Peter Jackson will produce “The Hobbit” movie.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson; Harry Sloan, Chairman and CEO, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM); Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs of New Line Cinema have jointly announced today that they have entered into the following series of agreements:

• MGM and New Line will co-finance and co-distribute two films, “The Hobbit” and a sequel to “The Hobbit.” New Line will distribute in North America and MGM will distribute internationally.
• Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as Executive Producers of two films based on “The Hobbit.” New Line will manage the production of the films, which will be shot simultaneously.
• Peter Jackson and New Line have settled all litigation relating to the “Lord of the Rings” (LOTR) Trilogy.

the only thing that worries me a teensy bit is the talk of two movies, “The Hobbit” and a sequel. What exactly will that sequel be? It doesn’t sound like they mean they will split the book of the “The Hobbit” into two movies, but that after the events of the book, they will continue the story. Perhaps they mean to show what happens in the years between “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”; maybe the expulsion of Sauron from Dol Guldur in Mirkwood and so on.

Hmm, will have to wait and see. And wait we will because they expect the first movie to be released in 2010 and the second in 2011. Seems like a compressed time frame. While they will probably re-use many of the same materials from TLR, I suspect that Jackson has been quietly preparing for this eventuality.

Anyway, glad to see that New Line came to its senses and buried the hatchet with Jackson. He’s made them a ton of money with TLR and that’s something they can’t ignore.