The Lord of The Rings trilogy made a gazillion bucks at the box office and made Peter Jackson a household name. But after The Return of The King won both Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars, Jackson sued New Line Cinema claiming that the profits for the trilogy were improperly accounted and, thus, the studio owed Jackson a lot of money.
The suit jeopardized plans to turn Tolkien’s The Hobbit into a movie and for a time, a big screen live action adaptation of the first Middle Earth novel was as bleak as the skies over Mordor.
But Jackson and New Line Cinema have finally settled the the suit and it has been officially announced that a movie based on The Hobbit will be made. In fact, the initial plans are for two movies to be made, The Hobbit and a sequel that will continue the story of the novel.
Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh are both attached to produce the movies but as of now, there are still no mention of a director. Hopefully, it will be Jackson again helming the films just to give the whole saga one singular vision.