February 15, 2004

The New York Times looks at fans’ hopes for a Peter Jackson movie based on J. R. R. Tolkien's earlier Middle-Earth work, The Hobbit. It notes the fan made teaser trailer made from clippings of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and other movies that gives an idea of what such a film could be like. However there are some challenges to producing the movie. The rights to producing the movie are held by New Line Cinemas and the rights to distributing it in much of the world are held by MGM/United Artists. Of course with the amount of money the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies made - $2.3 billion in revenue since 2001 the potential profits are so great that it is in everyone’s interest to make a deal. No mention of any movies based on the stories in The Silmarillion. 7:53:37 AM