This just in : "The Hobbit" is on, and it's twice as nice!

Well, it turns out that at least a billion dollars is enough to make even the most juvenile of adults make nice. It should come as a surprise to no one, I guess, but it's sensational news nonetheless that Peter Jackson and Bob Shaye have kissed and made up, and thanks to that we're gonna get not one but two "Hobbit" movies!

Believe me, I could have put eight exclamation points behind that, but since I write this mess at around 5 a.m. or so, we'll just leave it at one for now and just say I'm rather excited about this. The facts, with apologies to the great "Pushing Daisies," are these:

MGM and New Line will co-finance and co-distribute two films, “The Hobbit” and a sequel to “The Hobbit.” New Line will distribute in North America and MGM will distribute internationally.

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as Executive Producers of two films based on “The Hobbit.” New Line will manage the production of the films, which will be shot simultaneously.

Peter Jackson and New Line have settled all litigation relating to the “Lord of the Rings” (LOTR) Trilogy.

The two “Hobbit” films – “The Hobbit” and its sequel – are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, with pre-production beginning as soon as possible. Principal photography is tentatively set for a 2009 start, with the intention of “The Hobbit” release slated for 2010 and its sequel the following year, in 2011.

Now, the only possible bad news in all of this is that Jackson isn't (yet) listed as the director for either of these flicks. I'd imagine that could change quickly, but as of now Mr. Jackson's plate is already full with his take on Alice Sebold's best-selling "The Lovely Bones" (soon to be on my reading list) and then chapter one of the "Tintin" trilogy (huzzah!) he's developing with Steven Spielberg.

Even so, I'd imagine he'd be perfectly willing to move things around to get in the director's chair for this fantastic project, and I'm just as sure Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro, Sam Raimi and many other directors will be ringing him up in the next few days (if they haven't already.)

But what, beyond the obvious big pot of mad cash, led all the sides to make nice right now? I'd imagine that "The Golden Compass" had a lot to do with it. Domestically, at least, the $180 million flick continues to disappoint at the box office, dropping 65.8 percent in week two to take in only $8,825,549 (for a two-week total of $40,768,661, about $4 million less than those damn Chipmunks made in just one weekend.)

How the Shaye brothers must have been salivating for another family-friendly epic from the Tolkien well. But no matter how this all really came about, I'm just extremely happy it did.

Don't watch the Golden Globes

It pains me to write that, but it seems that in the last 24 hours or so the already ugly Hollywood labor situation has quickly gone from bad to worst possible scenario.

Assuming there isn't some fairly quick resolution to the writers' strike, the WGA has announced that it plans to picket the Golden Globes ceremonies Jan. 13. I would have to assume this means no actors will be walking the red carpet either, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Or, at least in my case, not see, since I certainly won't be tuning in under these rather desperate circumstances. A small gesture I know, but it's the least I can think of to do at this early hour to support these scribes in their quest to be fairly compensated when their work hits the World Wide Web. 'Nuff said.

When is viral marketing not viral marketing?

Well, that's a rather silly question, I guess, but just about right to introduce this very funny clip from the Apatow camp to promote "Walk Hard." It's basically the guys sitting around on the couch bitching about viral marketing (to market their flick, of course), but luckily it's also sometimes very funny, and it's just nice to see that the Craig Robinson (Darryl on "The Office") has apparenly become a regular member of the gang. I couldn't manage to embed this, but if you click here I guarantee you'll laugh out loud at least once. Enjoy, and have an entirely bearable Wednesday. Peace out.

"Terminate" this TV project immediately

I don't really like being in the business of telling people not to watch something, especially when I haven't seen it yet myself. It's just not my natural setting, I guess.

That said, I several times had to sit through a commercial Sunday night during Fox's Sunday night animated lineup, which was pretty darn funny. Just in case anyone out there has more of a life than me (which often isn't much of a challenge), I can tell you it was for Fox's simply craptastic take on the "Terminator" saga. I do hope I'm wrong about this, but it just gives me a really queasy feeling.

Which is a real shame, because being a devoted "Firefly"/"Serenity" fan, I wish nothing but the best for Summer Glau (which would be, of course, a revival of "Firefly" on the Sci-Fi Channel, but that keeps getting less and less likely.

So, what's my beef with this new "Terminator"? Well, besides that it's just thoroughly unnecessary, my animosity peaked Sunday night when I heard this rather unwitty exchange between whatever yarnhead is now playing John Connor and the Terminator played by Ms. Glau, as they're getting into a car:

Connor: I'll take shotgun.
Glau: I'll take 9-millimeter.

Now, if that's not enough to make all you Ahnold fans out there cringe, the terminator played by Ms. Glau is actually named Cameron. Believe me, I couldn't make this stuff up.

But why should I get so worked up about a silly TV show that doesn't even premiere until Jan. 13 on Fox? Well, the short answer is I probably shouldn't, but "The Terminator" series has always been close to my heart if for no better reason than Salisbury, Md., the tiny burg where I spent my entire childhood, is also the hometown of Linda Hamilton (and Frank Perdue the late chicken king, for that matter.) Besides, is it too much to ask that my favorite movie franchises not get watered down to pure garbage?

I know that, with the writers' strike ongoing, your choices will be limited this winter, but please, please, please don't watch this new "Terminator."

Good things to come

I had planned to offer an equally bitter comment about Will Smith's "I Am Legend," but seeing that it made $76.5 million this past weekend, the biggest December opening ever, just zapped all the energy out of me to do so.

I'll just say this: The key to my disappointment with "I Am Legend" is pretty much summed up in the movie by Smith's Robert Neville himself. Neville, along with supposedly searching for the cure to a virus he helped create but is somehow immune to, spends a lot of time listening to Bob Marley.

Now, I've got nothing at all against Mr. Marley, and am in fact listening to "Legend" right now (I'd have to imagine that the makers of this movie thought the coincidence in titles was rather clever.) But, back to my rather longwinded point. Of all the great Bob Marley tunes out there, Neville is fixated on "Three Little Birds," easily the most generic one of all.

To me, the movie "I Am Legend" exists in the same realm, a completely tired tale about a man-made virus (stop me if you've seen "28 Days Later" or any number of better movies on this subject) that manages to build very little interest at all before trotting out monsters that were swiped most directly from the end of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" but could come from any number of paint-by-numbers horror flicks. The best thing about "I Am Legend," in fact, was the two trailers that ran before it, one for "Iron Man" and a simply sensational look at "Dark Knight" (Heath's Joker is just gonna kick royal ass.)

And one more thing, while were on the subject. As cool as director Francis Lawrence's vision of post-apocalyptic New York is, I'd like to call for an immediate moratorium on blowing up my favorite city in the world on the big screen. I don't know why movie directors get such a thrill out of decimating NYC, but I'm just damn tired of seeing it. 'Nuff said.

But, enough bile for a Monday morning. For the first time in well, a very long time, there are actually three movies coming out this weekend that I want to see.

I'm thoroughly on board the Dewey Cox bandwagon, and am convinced that "Walk Hard" will be that rare spoof that manages to sustain its gag and be funny from start to finish. And, though I can definitely take or leave Tom Hanks, the teaming up of Mike Nichols and Aaron Sorkin for "Charlie Wilson's War" should also be pretty entertaining too.

The one I most want to see, however, is Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd." I'll find out tomorrow morning if this one is too bloody to open in my little corner of the world this weekend, which I fear may be the case but obviously hope won't be.

Three movies worth seeing? Now that's what I call a Christmas gift!

And, since anyone who sat through all that certainly deserves a reward, here's the trailer for "Leatherheads," the football flick starring George Clooney, John Krasinski and, I have the misfortune of telling you, Renee Zellweger. Enjoy, and have an entirely bearable Monday. Peace out.

Just why did "The Golden Compass" tank ... or did it?

Well, the short answer would have to be that, opening all alone in December and only pulling in $26 million in the U.S. with a budget of $180 million means your movie was indeed a failure. There's a silver lining behind that truly dismal number, but I'll get to more of that later.

Why did "The Golden Compass" fail to connect with American viewers? Having watched it myself and only mildly enjoyed it, I have my own theory why, and it only tangentially has to do with any kind of church protests.

And I did find out from talking to the manager of my multiplex that, in Macon at least, these protests were real and went beyond the attention-mad ramblings of Catholic League president William Donohue. But even so, since this apparently was mainly kept to handing out leaflets to churchgoers, it was pretty much preaching to the already-converted who most likely weren't going to go see the flick anyway.

Instead, watching the flick, I got the sinking feeling that the filmmakers, Chris Weitz principal among them, were done in by the simple fear of these protests and what it drove them to do to their movie even before it was released. If you've read any of Phillip Pullman's books, and I did read "The Golden Compass"/"Northern Lights" in preparation for seeing this flick, you know it's a wildly entertaining book full of important ideas about the diminished role - and eventual death - of organized religion.

Even if it's not an idea I necessarily agree with, I appreciated the passion which Pullman put into constructing the complex tale and layering it with his philosophy. And it's Pullman's ideological approach that's missing from the movie and, for me at least, made it a noble failure.

While keeping much of Pullman's tale intact (except for, notably, the final three chapters), the evil force known as the Magisterium was vagued up to the point that it was simply turned into some kind of Big Brother interested in taking away from kids any notion of free will. As menacing as that is, it dumbed down the message of the book enough that you're gonna offend some of your true believers while not winning over any of those who were predisposed to oppose the movie, so where's the winner in that?

Aesthetically, I also have to say the movie just dragged more than a bit from the point that our heroine (the simply superb Dakota Blue Richards) left the college until she ran into the aeronaut Lee Scoresby (played by Sam Elliott, who proves he can bring life to any move he's in.) I know there was a lot of exposition to get through, but it was just awfully talky for a fantasy/adventure movie.

But, of course, it's not all bad. As I said, young Ms. Richards is just perfectly defiant as Lyra, and the opening "battle" among she and her friends just sets the tone perfectly before things fall apart. And the ice bears, voiced by the two Ians (McKellen and McShane), were just friggin cool.

And, if you look at the big box office picture, maybe "The Golden Compass" wasn't such a big failure after all. On about 5,000 screens in 25 overseas markets, the movie took in $55 million, more than double its domestic pull. And it in fact managed to make more in these markets than the four movies that followed it - "Enchanted," "Bee Movie," "Beowulf" and "Hitman" - combined.

I have more than a little suspicion, however, that that won't be enough to convince New Line to greenlight the second installment in what was to be a planned trilogy. A quick visit to the IMDB reveals that, indeed, there is no director selected yet for "The Subtle Knife," though there is a screenplay by Hossein Amini.

I have the sneaking feeling that Bob Shaye and the other folks at New Line, having already pretty much neutered the first installment, now don't have the huevos to go through with a series in which our heroine, if I'm not mistaken, does indeed kill God (now, I haven't read the next two books in the series, so please do inform me if I've somehow got this wrong.) If they indeed back away now, this would have to go down as one of the great movie debacles of all time. Stay tuned ...

Will you laugh hard at "Walk Hard"?

I really want this movie to be good. There hasn't been a quality spoof in a long time, and in the hands of Judd Apatow and director Jake Kasdan this would seem to be our best bet in many years. It's also the first time in the main spotlight for the very deserving John C. Reilly, and the musician biopics it takes aim at are equally deserving targets. I can't shake the suspicion, though, that it's gonna be uneven at best, but hopefully still very funny in stretches. Now, with the first 10 minutes at least, you can decide for yourself thanks to the glory of YouTube. Feel free to let me know what you think, and have a perfectly pleasant Tuesday. Peace out.