Where and Back Again?

More potentially bad news about the supposedly upcoming The Hobbit movie, involving Peter Jackson and the Screen Actors Guild and if Jackson doesn't play ball then why not just relocate from the Edenic New Zealand to post-Soviet eastern Europe.

I didn't grow up on a diet of Tolkien, but I very much enjoyed the Lord of the Rings films, and the books, after Fellowship came out. Part of the reason they worked so well is that, being made essentially back-to-back, they were conceived and executed in essentially the same creative headspace: unlike, say, the Matrix sequels or (especially) the Star Wars prequel trilogy, the LOTR filmmakers weren't burdened with recapturing lightning in a bottle and (over)reacting to their own success. There's a little of this, particularly in how their approach to Gollum changed over the course of three films, but on the whole the films are remarkably consistent in quality and tone, and they deservedly made an arseload of cash.

The Hobbit, ever since it was announced, has had to deal with the problem of trying to reconjure the serendipity of Jackson's trilogy. Having Guilermo del Toro at the helm was an inspired choice of defusing it, since his vision is so very much his own. But now he's gone and Jackson's back in but still going to use his designs, which is like going on a date with your ex-boyfriend's brother and insisting he adopt your ex's mannerisms and fashion sense, and these latest developments just sound like more trouble.

Just let the franchise sail off to the Gray Havens. It's not worth hanging around for Rosie and becoming mayor of Hobbiton.