No "Hobbit" for Peter Jackson

That seems to be the word in a statement he and Fran Walsh sent to theonering.net, and it seems pretty definite.

The prospect of Jackson teaming with New Line again, which has the distribution rights to the Hobbit story, if I'm understanding this right, had always been dicey. Jackson's company, Wingnut Films, has brought a lawsuit againt New Line over profits from the three Lord of the Rings movies, so this wasn't exactly a lovefest. And now it seems their relationship is over for good. Here's an excerpt from their statement.

Several years ago, Mark Ordesky told us that New Line have rights to make not just The Hobbit but a second "LOTR prequel", covering the events leading up to those depicted in LOTR. Since then, we've always assumed that we would be asked to make The Hobbit and possibly this second film, back to back, as we did the original movies. We assumed that our lawsuit with the studio would come to a natural conclusion and we would then be free to discuss our ideas with the studio, get excited and jump on board. We've assumed that we would possibly get started on development and design next year, whilst filming The Lovely Bones. We even had a meeting planned with MGM executives to talk through our schedule.

However last week, Mark Ordesky called Ken 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.

You can read the rest of their statement here.

Bad news indeed, but not really tragic. Don't get me wrong, I flat-out love The Hobbit. I learned to play the piano to those cheesy Rankin-Bass songs, so the story has always been special to me in many ways.

That said, maybe it's the right time for Mr. Jackson to just move on. I can't wait to see what he does with The Lovely Bones, which I've just started reading, and wherever else this slightly crazed genius wants to go.

Wilson, Reitman and ninjas

OK, enough bad news for today. From here on out, nothing but positivity for a Monday morning, I promise.

What's funnier than a ninja? How about a former ninja with time to kill. That seems to be the premise being developed by two very funny men, actor Rainn Wilson and director Jason Reitman.

Wilson is writing "Bonzai Shadowhands" (great title) for himself to star in (must be nice!) and Reitman to direct for Fox Searchlight.

Reitman is currently at work on "Juno," a coming-of-age story about a young woman who finds herself pregnant at an early age. My brother tells me the flick, to star young Ellen Page and "Arrested Development" alum Michael Cera, was written by City Pages scribe Diablo Cody, who now has pink hair and writes an extremely addictive blog titled "Pussy Ranch." You can read her great stuff here.

Wilson, who of course plays the more-than-slightly fascist Dwight on "The Office," said he plans to enlist his friends from the show to help with this first screenwriting gig. "I am going to take my outline to all of the writers and one by one get their ideas and feedback, and by the end of that, it'll be kick-ass in a way only a ninja can kick ass," he said.

A kick-ass idea indeed.

'Borat' film of the year - in Kazakhstan?

It seems like Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat is being sued by someone new every day, but now he's finally getting some love from an unusual source.

The Kazakh government threatened Borat with "legal measures" last year, prompting him to respond that he fully supported "his" government's decision to "sue this Jew".

Since then, the government has softened its stance, with officials saying they understand it is satire and not directed against Kazakhstan. But cinemas in Kazakhstan and neighboring Russia have both been told not to screen the "offensive" movie.

That meant Karavan, a leading weekly tabloid, had to go to great measures so a correspondent could see Borat's movie in Austria.

Correspondent Andrei Shukhov's take: "Cultural Learnings is certainly not an anti-Kazakh, anti-Romanian or anti-Semitic ... It is a cruelly anti-American movie. It is amazingly funny and sad at the same time. I think this is the best film of the year."

Well put. I'm not sure I'd go quite that far, but Borat did make a damn funny flick, and I'm glad to see at least one Kazakh scribe can laugh along with him.

Tidbits from Jack Black

In an interview with comingsoon.net which you can read here, Jack Black talked a lot about his upcoming flick with Michel Gondry, "Be Kind, Rewind," but also let loose some other funny thoughts.

On more "Nacho Libre:" "I sure hope so; I love working with Jared [Hess]. I think there's a good bet we'll collaborate on something again. ... Mike had an idea that it would be Nacho goes to Japan, but we'll see about that."

On an Altman flick: "I'm loosely signed on to something, verbally; I don't know if I'm allowed to say if it's just verbally. There was talk of a possible Robert Altman thing, big cast, and semi-improvisational."

Nacho in Japan? Jack Black and Robert Altman? It all sounds like fun to me.