t may be hard to believe, but it’s been almost five years since Peter Jackson’s epic Lord Of The Rings trilogy graced movie screens around the globe. The series was incredible artistic and financial success, receiving rave reviews, winning piles of Oscars, and grossing almost $3 billion worldwide. With that kind of cash cow, you’d think that producers would be falling over themselves trying to get another film about the harry-footed hobbits to the big screen, particularly given the fact that a rather famous prequel to the books already exists. Yet, while rumors have been floating around about a film adaptation of theThe Hobbit ever since The Return Of The King ended its theatrical run, the project has never gotten close to production as the result of an ongoing feud between New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson. However, this is about to change.

Peter Jackson will return to Middle Earth

Jackson has been fighting with New Line for years because he never received the full profit percentages that he was owed for the Rings series. He has made it clear in interviews that he would love adapt a feature film of The Hobbit, but the problems that he was experiencing with studio executives made it impossible. It seemed like the movie would simply never happen, then in February New Line Cinema became a subsidiary of Warner Brothers and the heads of the studio (Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne) were fired. With the problematic producers out of power, discussions have begun on The Hobbit once more and this time it looks like it will actually happen.

As exciting as this news is, it comes with one unfortunate downside: Peter Jackson will no longer be calling the shots from the director’s chair. Jackson was understandably exhausted after the massive Lord Of The Rings and King Kong productions absorbed years of his life and doesn’t want to go through it again. Fortunately, he will still act as a producer on the project and ensure that the new movie lives up to the lofty expectations set by his incredible work on the first films. More than that, Jackson has already decided who he will pass his directorial torch to. A variety of big names lined up for the position—including Sam Raimi, the mastermind behind The Evil Dead and Spider-man trilogies—but Jackson ultimately chose Guillmo Del Toro.