WTF, New Line ?!?!?

This is news most of us have already seen, but I still want to add my foul-mouthed reaction to the chorus - Seriously? New Line? Did you fall and hit your head or something? From an email sent The One Ring from Peter Jackson himself:

"... last week, [producer] Mark Ordesky called [our Manager Ken Kamins] and told him that New Line would no longer be requiring our services on the Hobbit and the LOTR 'prequel'. This was a courtesy call to let us know that the studio was now actively looking to hire another filmmaker for both projects.

Ordesky said that New Line has a limited time option on the film rights they have obtained from Saul Zaentz (this has never been conveyed to us before), and because we won't discuss making the movies until the lawsuit is resolved [ed. - Jackson's suing New Line because they owe him money from the LotR films], the studio is going to have to hire another director.

Given that New Line are committed to this course of action, we felt at the very least, we owed you, the fans, a straightforward account of events as they have unfolded for us.

We have always had the greatest support from The Ringers and we are very sorry our involvement with The Hobbit has been ended in this way. Our journey into Tolkien's world started with a phone call from Ken Kamins to Harvey Weinstein in Nov 1995 and ended with a phone call from Mark Ordesky to Ken in Nov 2006. It has been a great 11 years.

This outcome is not what we anticipated or wanted, but neither do we see any positive value in bitterness and rancor. We now have no choice but to let the idea of a film of The Hobbit go and move forward with other projects."

Gah! No!!! A Hobbit movie without Peter Jackson is just stupid, stupid, stupid. Either make it with him, or don't make it at all. Goddamn. Can't we all just get along?
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