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]

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.