Update on the Hobbit film

[serai]

From TORn, first this:


Word from a reliable source indicates that Sam Raimi has been approached to direct THE HOBBIT. Since Peter Jackson's (Middle-)earth shattering news that he is off the project, it seems the Spider-Man director may step into his place. Raimi was born on October 23rd, 1959 in Royal Oak, Michigan. His first big hit was 'The Evil Dead' but he really gained cult status with 'Evil Dead II'. It is his amazing work on the Spider-Man series that has propelled Raimi to the mainstream. His latest film 'Spider-Man 3' is due out this May.


Now this:


Saul Zaentz On The Hobbit

Saul Zaentz, the owner of Tolkien Enterprises, and ultimate holder of the film rights to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings was very recently interviewed about the Hobbit and Peter Jackson's involvement.

The interview has since been posted on German Rings site Elbenwald. You can read it here.

It's in German, so here's a translation of his comments.


Q: What is with the long anticipated Hobbit-adaption?

A: It will definitely be shot by Peter Jackson. The question is only when. He wants to shoot another movie first. Next year the Hobbit-rights will fall back to my company. I suppose that Peter will wait because he knows that he will make the best deal with us. And he is fed up with the studios: to get his profit share on the rings trilogy he had to sue New Line. With us in contrast he knows that he will be paid fairly and artistically supported without reservation.

---

So, in Zaentz's opinion, it's a big game of chicken - who'll blink first, you might say. His comments do put all of this in an interesting perspective. New Line's all shirty about what they want, but the ones with the power to hold things up are saying, "No, we want PJ to direct." And they can hold things up long enough that New Line will no longer have a say.


As for the director choice, that would be interesting. Sam Raimi's pretty damn good, and he has a feel for character. I wonder what production company they'd be going with, however. If he could work with Weta, then I think we could have something worth doing. Since it is another book by the same author, having a different director working with the same production and design team would actually have a lot of potential, at least in my opinion.

What do you think?

Comments

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

But I thought New Line was the one that held the option right now, so if they begin principle photography, their option doesn't expire?

I remember all this with the movie for The Vampire Lestat, which WB ended up beginning JUST under the wire, and turned into The Queen of the Damned, skipping TVL and turning the whole thing into an extended MTV video.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Sure, they can start the film, but what will they do with it when they've finished? MGM holds the distribution rights, and they want PJ to direct. That's why this is all such a tug-of-war. New Line dropped the ball by not talking to PJ immediately about a Hobbit film. Now time's running out, the director wants the money he's owed, the distribution company says they gotta make the film with him, and New Line's in a serious bind with this. Unless they make PJ happy, the whole thing is going to slip through their fingers - a spectacularly bad job of managing a franchise that's already proved very lucrative.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

It's crazy, I know!

Distro rights are usually rights of first refusal - in other words, if MGM refuses, there can be an out wherein New Line can shop it around.

Again, a LOT of this depends on the specific language used in all the contracts, and what is going on behind the scenes w/ the New Line/PJ lawsuit. We probably know about 10% of all the stuff.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Interesting on the distro rights. But my thought is, if MGM's rights are just first refusal, why has it been such a huge deal for so many years that MGM had those rights? Because I had the impression that it basically held the Hobbit property hostage. That's why New Line kept saying for so long that it would be difficult to do the Hobbit - because MGM had the distro rights. That makes me think MGM has a pretty big say in things. Otherwise, would it ever have been an issue?

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I don't know the specific deals. First rights CAN also tie up a film and essentially shelve it if the first-refuser dithers. There's also money involved, on all ends. It's a really really tricky legal morass.

There's a reason entertainment lawyers make big bucks ;) On the other hand, they kind of also created this spaghetti monster that is the hollywood system.

[oohasparklie.livejournal.com]

What would be really great is if, out of respect to Jackson's masterpiece of the LotR trilogy, every director that was approached said no.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Hm, I wouldn't agree with that. It's not like PJ is going around trying to get people to influence the decision, a la "I was robbed!" He's said that if he can't do it, he'd actually welcome the chance to sit down to someone's else's version. Maybe it's because I've never actually read the Hobbit (only pieces of it), or maybe because I'd really love to see other filmmakers take on Tolkien, but I'm trying to stay away from attaching any kind of sacredness to PJ's LOTR. It's a fucking amazing piece of work, but he's not the only director on the planet who could do Tolkien well. Like I've said before, nobody would have thought PJ could pull it off, so there's no reason why somebody else in the world couldn't do just as well.

And if it doesn't turn out that way, well, I think all of the fans should keep in mind that PJ's version was a result not only of hard work and love, but also enormous luck and serendipity. That kind of thing tends to run out. I'd actually be surprised if the whole Hobbit thing comes off perfectly with everyone involved again, and a beautiful product and a big success and all. Very pleased, but definitely surprised. Life rarely works out with that kind of perfection.

[oohasparklie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wish I could look at it more objectively, but I can't, and I don't really want to. PJ made those movies very special and very sacred to me, and if I get a chance to experience that again with The Hobbit, and that same crew of wonderful people, then I just don't think I could accept it from anyone else. For me, It's PJ's personality that made those films magical, and anything else would be just...less.