Peter Jackson to Produce Two Hobbit Movies in 2009

Peter Jackson has won his bid to be Producer for two upcoming Hobbit films. After a rather bitter struggle regarding final compensation for the first three Lord of the Rings movies, MGM is finally able to have Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will Executive Produce both a Hobbit movie and a sequel. Jackson is apparently not the Director, however his involvement will satisfy most fans who were convinced the studios (namely New Line Cinema) would make a huge mistake by pulling him from the production.

According to a Reuters report this afternoon, MGM and New Line, a unit of Time Warner Inc, will co-finance the films, with New Line distributing them in the United States and MGM internationally. The Hobbit is an exciting prequel as it tells the story of how Bilbo Baggins came to acquire the One Ring of power featured in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. While the Trilogy touches upon the underlying story, The Hobbit is a fascinating tale that brings in many characters fans are dying to see again - namely Gandalf the Wizard and Gloin the father of Gimli the dwarf.

Jackson had originally sued New Line Cinema stating they had improperly accounted for the funds made from the original trilogy and refused to sign on for The Hobbit until the situation was rectified. Since the original Trilogy has, to-date brought in around $3 billion (yes, with a 'B') this was a non-trivial matter. Signing on for the prequel was viewed by Jackson as a ploy to derail his lawsuit on the original movies.

According to the report today, that lawsuit has been settled, allowing the Hobbit movies to go into development. MGM, which owns film rights to The Hobbit is also now part of the team. Like Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit movies will be made simultaneously and will be released starting in 2010. It is not perfectly clear what exactly the second movie will be - either a Part Two sequel to The Hobbit or a take on The Silmarillion, a true prequel to the entire story of Middle Earth.