Peter Jackson to helm The Hobbit

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Melbourne (ANI): Sam Raimi has dismissed reports that he will be helming 'The Hobbit", insisting that Peter Jackson is the best one to handle the project. The 'Spiderman" director was said to be in the running to direct the movie following Jackson"s problems with New Line. However, Raimi insists that he will not be directing the movie version of the prequel to JRR Tolkien"s literary series 'The Lord of the Rings".

"There's no better choice to direct 'The Hobbit' than Peter Jackson. I'm a fan of 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy and Peter Jackson's a brilliant filmmaker and he would be the guy I think everybody would love see direct it," Moviehole quoted him, as telling Coming Soon. “And I hear [New Line and Jackson are] talking, too, from what I read in the trades, I don't really know first hand, hopefully he will direct it and give us his great version of it."

However, that doesn"t mean that Raimi is not interested, for he revealed that he would love to take up the project if Jackson turns it down. "If he doesn't direct it and decides to produce it, I'd love to be considered as the director," he said.