This is somewhat old news. But I feel it necessary to add my voice – my blog – to the legions of other voices out there expressing outrage.
What am I talking about? The worst movie-making decision of all time. New Line Studios, the folks who financed Peter Jackson and gave him the green light to make three of the grandest, greatest films of all time with The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, has opted to go forth and make The Hobbit and a second, yet unnamed “prequel” to The Lord Of The Rings, without him. Without Peter and Fran.
That’s right. They’re making more The Lord Of The Rings without the people who are responsible for making it great.
I don’t like to curse in my blog. Cursing is a sure-fire way to cause certain people to stop reading, and I really like my blog to be accessible to everyone. But this decision by New Line is pushing me to the edge. In the pantheon of collossial movie screw-ups, this ranks #1. Nothing else comes close.
Peter and Fran take time to explain, in an e-mail posted on TheOneRing.Net, why this happened.
The crux of the issue is that Peter and Fran are engaged in a lawsuit with New Line over accounting practices. They want to make these films – they want to be a part of it – but not until the lawsuit is settle by an independent arbitor. They don’t care what the ruling is, they just want it decided by an independent party. Yet, for whatever reason the lawsuit hasn’t been settled and New Line is acting like a child, taking their ball and going home. Or in this case, to another director.
The Lord Of The Rings franchise made billions of dollars. With a “B”. A major reason for that is because of the vision, writing and directing of Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. Without them, that trilogy wouldn’t have been nearly as successful. Jackson and Co. attacked that movie with everything they had; all of their heart and soul. That is why those movies succeeded. Because they poured their love for film into it.
This is a no-brainer decision, and yet New Line has managed to screw it up.
Unbelievable.