UPDATE to below: Not quite, says Vulture. They claim “an insider at his agency, William Morris Endeavor, confirms to Vulture that not only is Blomkamp not doing the movie, no one from MGM/United Artists or Warner Bros. has even contacted them about his directing the film.” (Note that doesn’t mean Jackson hasn’t discussed it with the filmmaker himself, of course.)
6.21.10 – Ever since Guillermo del Toro departed THE HOBBIT, the major question mark (other than when it will actually happen) has been who would or could take over.
Sam Raimi previously wanted to travel through Middle Earth, but even if the opportunity arose, he’s already decided to visit OZ and play WORLD OF WARCRAFT instead. The studios (and fans) want Peter Jackson to spend even more of his life with small wanderers, but he’s made it pretty clear he has departed the Shire outside of writing and producing.
Now according to The One Ring, a new (but unsurprising) name is in the mix to direct: Neill Blomkamp. The DISTRICT 9 director is a Jackson protege, and already demonstrated a talent for extracting strong performances from both humans and digitial fabrications.
Blomkamp clearly has skill and the trust of Jackson (and his D9 follow-up project seems slow-moving), but would the studios go for it? And can they even get their financial and rights situation resolved to officially get the movie in the pipe? We should hear something confirmed soon. Maybe… at Comic Con?
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