Last we'd heard on the prospects of a Hobbit adaptation coming to the big screen, Peter Jackson had basically gotten himself kicked off the project by raising a fuss over his cut from those three other Tolkien movies he did a while back. But no, today comes word that all is well-and-good-ish between Jackson and New Line, and that Jackson will go ahead and exec-produce a two part, four hour version of the Lord of the Rings prequel. Jackson will be taking in 50% of the profits, which sounds bonkers to us, but maybe New Line couldn't find the upside to doing a Jackson-less version, lest the fanboys rebel in droves, and just threw money at him.
You know, the Lord of the Rings movies were on TNT this weekend, all in a row, and although we really like the second movie, we couldn't help but feel nervous as the third one started wrapping up. Not because of the high stakes, big battles, or whatever -- because we were trying to figure out when to turn it off to avoid all the hugging Hobbits at the end. Seriously, what was that? One minute you're fighting an epic throwdown with Orcs and Mastadons vs. Elves and Zombies, and the next thing you know, it's a half-hour Hobbit slumber party? Just get on the damn boat or whatever! Thankfully, as we remember The Hobbit, it's a pretty lean adventure story, and there aren't too many other citizens of the Shire in it besides Bilbo Baggins, so maybe we'll be spared so much Hobbit-on-Hobbit subtext this time?