At least we now have hope!

According to Entertainment Weekly, the legal battle that’s kept The Lord of the Rings‘ prequel, The Hobbit, hung up for years (what the industry likes to call ‘in turn around’). If you are not in the LOTR ‘know’, a bitter feud has been ongoing between Rings director Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema co-chairman Robert Shaye over money Jackson feels (and I think rightly so) he is owed from the three films.

It may finally be nearing resolution. While no agreements have been announced and any details of negotiations are sketchy at best, there is buzz that a deal may be reached that could help usher J.R.R. Tolkien’s maiden Middle-earth masterpiece to screens before the end of the decade. Huzzah!

As Jackson told his fans, he is not interested in discussing The Hobbit until the lawsuit is resolved. And with a possible deadline looming (apparently the right to the films may revert back to the guy that sold them years back), New Line is understandably not interested in losing hundreds of millions of dollars in potential box office and ancillary revenue.

Jackson is pretty crafty in his lawsuit as he is suing to see all of the financial records stemming from not just ticket sales but also the DVDs, boxsets, action figures…everything. Without question, Hollywood is legendary for making net profits disappear faster than free beer at a frat party (which is why anyone with the muscle negotiates for points on the gross and not the net).

So, New Line is desperate to avoid turning over anything with numbers on it to Jackson’s camp while Jackson wants to know exactly what he is (or even isn’t owed)…you see, that knowledge would pay off handsomely for any future project now wouldn’t it?

Jackson won’t budget without getting the LOTR money issue resolved and New Line want to move forward quickly before losing out on hundreds of millions more in profits.

On a side note, have you noticed the huge weight loss by Peter Jackson? Compare these two images:

This is during filming of LOTR. Notice the dwarvian build? Now look at this one:

Wow! He must have gone full blown California – salads and colonics must do wonders.  But wait!  Apparently, he just modified his diet while shooting the remake of King Kong (working 21 hour days certainly helped).  He also got lasiks surgery and got rid of the eyeglasses.

Check these two before and after images:

And now after:

Weird how in this image he looks a lot like Dominic Monaghan, the actor that portrayed Merry (Meridoc Brandybuck) in LOTR.  Life imitating art?