Cinefantastique Online

EW.Com has a lengthy article up claiming that the war between New Line honcho Robert Shaye and LORD OF THE RINGS director Peter Jackson may have reached a “detente.” The bulk of the article is devoted to a history of what set the two men against each other: there were questions about royalty and merchandising payments from New Line, so Jackson asked for an audit; this is a fairly standard procedure in Hollywood, where the accounting is often labyrinthine, but for some reason Shaye took it personally. There had been talk of having Jackson film The Hobbit, Tolkien’s prequel to The Lord of the Rings, but after Jackson filed a lawsuit, Shaye “blacklisted” him from the company and offered the project to other directors. Actor Ian McKellen, who plays Gandalf, made it known that he “relished” the idea of returning to the role - if Jackson was helming the film. Recently, after courts fined New Line for failing to provide requested documents, Shaye told the Los Angeles Times, “I really respect and admired Peter and would love for him to be creatively involved in some way in THE HOBBIT.”

A script has yet to be written so it is too early to say whether Jackson will in fact be directing THE HOBBIT, but apparently he has not grown cold on the project and would like to make  not one but two films, one based on the book and one that bridges the gap between the book and the events of LORD OF THE RINGS.