Hobbit Movie in Four Years?

Antarctic Lemur writes "At the Powerhouse Museum LOTR Exhibition in Sydney, Peter Jackson has said a film version of The Hobbit is three years away at least. Reasons for the delay include the sale of MGM, which part-owns the movie rights to The Hobbit, and Jackson's recently filed suit against New Line Cinema, the other part-owner. Jackson is currently filming King Kong at his new facility in Wellington, NZ. Slashdot readers will also be interested in the high security planned for King Kong's pre-release screenings."

Comments

One of the years most inticipated movies?

[Monkelectric]

Security experts plan to keep King Kong, one of the year's most anticipated movies, out of the hands of pirates.

I'll admit I opt-out of a lot of pop culture, but I don't know ANYONE looking forward to the King Kong movie.

Is this wishful thinking on their part? Am I completely out of it? Or is this a new marketing tactic?

Re:One of the years most inticipated movies?

[Scrameustache]

is this a new marketing tactic?

Telling people that other people want it? It's not a new one.

Hell, I remember some random romantic comedy in the summer of 1999 claiming in their ads to be the most anticipated movie of the year.

There's lies, and then there's outrageous lies: 1999 is the year where hundreds of fans accross the united states camped in front of movie theatres for weeks to see Phantom Menace, and millions of fans accross the world camped for a day to see it. Now THAT is anticipation.

Re:What about the Silmirilion?

[Tyler Eaves]

He has the sense to make movies people will actually WANT to see.

Re:What about the Silmirilion?

[Scrameustache]

Why would he focus on the Hobbit when the Silmirilion would make a much better movie.

The Silmarillion is not a good movie story. It's a collection of background notes that were never meant by their author to be published, a dense tome that is read by fanatics of the Lords of the Rings for it's value-adding goodness. Not a product suitable for mass market appeal.

The Hobbit, however, is a light tale of dragon-slaying adventure with characters and settings already familliar to the consummers.

Broken logic mister.

[Scrameustache]

If the bootlegs appear at around the time of the first screening, many people will not go to the cinema.

The people who stay at home to watch the free low-quality bootleg wouldn't have gone to see it at the theatre anyway.

Personally, as uninterrested as I am in yet another remake of King Kong, if I wanted to see it at all it would be on a BIG screem, to enjoy the bigness.

I disagree

[jesterzog]

I'm not exactly an insider (apart from living in the same town as Peter Jackson), but I don't think that's so much the issue here. As far as I can tell, he wants what's fair and what he was contracted for. Even if you love your day-job, you should make sure that your employer isn't ripping you off. They are getting your work out of it, after all. Look how much Newline's benefiting from Jackson's work. I'd be annoyed if they weren't giving me my fair share that'd been previously arranged.

What Peter Jackson loves a lot is making movies (and various other things like restoring WW1 fighter planes). He's built up an entire industry in NZ, based around his film-making and special effects companies, which personally I think do a very good job. If Newline's shortchanged him by several tens or hundreds of millions of dollars (I forget how much it is), it automatically hinders his ability to do everything else that he really loves doing, including his own investment in other films that he thinks are worth making.

In any case, I don't think he's another George Lucas. The telling point for me is that Lucas has been irritating his fans in exchange for the money he can make from them. Jackson's simply fighting with his employer for what he thinks he's owed.