Peter Jackson Talks The Hobbit

Posted on December 2, 2009

Peter Jackson told Syfy that he, Fran and Philippa are working on the second revised script for The Hobbit which he hopes to have done by the end of the year. That would move the production start date back to 2010. The first of the two films should hit theaters at the end of 2011.

"We're still working on the script, and of course it's going to be directed by Guillermo [del Toro]," Jackson said in an exclusive interview with SCI FI Wire. "That's going really well, and in fact we've already delivered the first script to the studio, and they really liked it, so now we're working hard on the second script, and that's going to keep us pretty busy until the end of this year."
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Jackson is well known as being a very hands-on filmmaker. So just how involved will he be during The Hobbit's shoot next year? "Well, I'm not intending to be on the set every day looking over his shoulder," he said with a laugh. "It's Guillermo's movie, and he'll be filming it, not me. The reason he's directing it is because I'm a big fan of his movies, and I know he'll do a fantastic job. I know he's the right guy for the project, and I love his amazing sense of visual and imagery. So I won't be interfering with his approach."
Del Toro is also collaborating with Jackson and his team on writing The Hobbit. "We're all on the same page [about the project], and it all starts with a good script," Jackson said. "We're big believers in structured screenplays, and the thing with our screenwriting partnership, with Fran and Philippa, is that we don't have a traditional screenplay deal with the studio. We don't have two drafts and a bunch of revisions. We refuse to put that into our contracts, as we continually rewrite and refine the scripts as we go."

We're still nervous about Jackson not directing. We did enjoy Pan's Labyrinth, but we hope none of the look of that film makes it into The Hobbit. This project is taking so long to get off the ground that it's driving us crazy. There's always some delay: a lawsuit, a rewrite. Or maybe we're just impatient.