OneRing.Net has a letter from director Peter Jackson where he explains that due to his not being able to work on THE HOBBIT until his lawsuit with New Line over the profits of FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, New Line has told him they don’t want him to make THE HOBBIT…or a mysterious 2nd prequel to LotR.

Several years ago, Mark Ordesky told us that New Line have rights to make not just The Hobbit but a second “LOTR prequel”, covering the events leading up to those depicted in LOTR. Since then, we’ve always assumed that we would be asked to make The Hobbit and possibly this second film, back to back, as we did the original movies. We assumed that our lawsuit with the studio would come to a natural conclusion and we would then be free to discuss our ideas with the studio, get excited and jump on board. We’ve assumed that we would possibly get started on development and design next year, whilst filming The Lovely Bones. We even had a meeting planned with MGM executives to talk through our schedule.

However last week, Mark Ordesky called Ken and told him that New Line would no longer be requiring our services on the Hobbit and the LOTR ‘prequel’. This was a courtesy call to let us know that the studio was now actively looking to hire another filmmaker for both projects.


Second prequel? Ah, Finrod!

4 COMMENTS

  1. The Silmarillion.

    Of course, that’s not what they mean. And if they did make it, it’d be totally incomprehensible. But as someone who likes the SIlmarillion much more than the LotR, that’d be fun to see…

  2. I always thought the only way to do the Silmarillion would be on TV, Band of Brothers style (twelve part series, 1-2 hours each part) on HBO. It’s the only way to get the violence and scope of it into a comprehensible package.

  3. Don’t try to pretend the Silmarillion is a narrative. Just pick the strongest stories out of it and film them. Beren and Luthien, for example, would expand to a 2 – 2.5 hour movie handily. (Urg. Unintentional pun there.)

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