Peter Jackson and The Hobbit: New hope?

This story is probably very old by now, but I don't get paid enough (or, for that matter, at all) to work on this on the weekends, so here goes. Besides, to me at least, there are few things in the world of movies that could be better than Peter Jackson returning to the New Line fold to make "The Hobbit."

For a long while, it certainly seemed extremely unlikely. With the two sides mired in a very nasty fight over the profits from the "Rings" movies, New Line co-Chairman Bob Shaye in particular had been raising the bile level with his public statements.

Here's what Shaye had to say in January: "It (Peter Jackson directing "The Hobbit") will never happen during my watch." Sounds pretty firm, right? Well, not so fast.

Now, according to Yahoo!, Shaye is back in talks with Jackson to bring him home to New Line - and "The Hobbit." Shaye's quote this time: "Notwithstanding our personal quarrels, I really respect and admire Peter and would love for him to be creatively involved in some way in The Hobbit."

So, what happened in the last eight months to change his mind so completely? I'd guess one of two things: They either shopped this around to several different directors but couldn't find one with both the skill and the will to do this right, or he was told by the New Line money men that his "watch" might not last too much longer without Jackson in the fold.

My money would be on some version of the former, especially since Jackson still has all the "Rings" sets on hand to use in New Zealand. Plus, I'm sure Shaye's been gorging on all that gorgeous "Golden Compass" footage and realizing just how lucrative Jackson's "Hobbit" will be.

But why is "The Hobbit" so important to me? Well, I loved the "Rings" stories and movies, but I just hold "The Hobbit" in even higher esteem. I think it's a combination of several factors: "The Hobbit" is a simpler story, more oriented to kids, and more magical than its companions. Plus, I learned to play the piano to those silly songs from the Rankin/Bass animated movie, so even in that cheesy form "The Hobbit" has always just been extremely close to my heart.

So, knowing all this, I'd have to bet on the breach being mended very soon, and Jackon soon announcing he will begin work on "The Hobbit" after he wraps "The Lovely Bones."

Updates on two of my favorites

In it's promo work for the upcoming bloodbath "Shoot 'Em Up" (mark your calendars for Sept. 7), Comingsoon.net has interviews with Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti about their future plans, and it features plenty of cool stuff.

There have been several attempts recently to revive Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe, some much better than others. Thankfully, it seems the idea of a TV series "loosely" based on the Marlowe character, in other words taking only the shred of Chandler's original concept and just running in all kinds of directions with it, is seemingly dead.

Still going strong, though, is a big-screen version to star Clive Owen and, get this, actually based on one of Chandler's stories. There are very few dudes in movies today badder than Mr. Owen (watch "Croupier" before you even try to dispute that), so I can definitely get behind him filling the shoes of Marlowe. Here's what he had to say to Comingsoon.

"We got the rights and we're developing the script, and there's an area that's very daunting because the greats have played him: Mitchum and Bogart. I won't be going in there trying to do so something I think that relates to them. You go in there with a fresh approach, so I never really worry about the history of a project, like I wouldn't do 'The Big Sleep' but you go in and I'll do my interpretation of Marlowe and hope it comes even with the same radar as Bogart's."

Later this year, Mr. Owen will star with Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush in "The Golden Age," about as close to an Oscar lock (along with "American Gangster" and "Charlie Wilson's War") as there will be this year. Owen, as Sir Walter Raleigh, will be pitching woo to Blanchett's Queen Elizabeth I, and Samantha Morton (huzzah!) will be around as well as Mary Queen of Scots. Here's what Mr. Owen had to say about that one, due out Oct 12:

"There's a whole element of it that centers on the love triangle between Elizabeth, Raleigh and Bess, the lady-in-waiting. They were known to have a very, very close relationship and this is about setting up a situation where maybe in another time, another place, the whole thing could have become different. It's really about Elizabeth and her destiny and heading to become the immortal virgin Queen and struggling with that really."

And, even better, he talked about his next flick, Thomas Twyker's "The International": "It's like a big international, political thriller with a guy trying to expose and bring down a big bank, and every time he gets close, people are backing off, and strange things are happening with people being murdered, and he's obsessively trying to bring them down. It's like a throwback '70s very political thriller with some amazing bursts of action in there as well."

Even if I'm in the vast minority of people who just had very little time for his last bank-heist flick, Spike's "Inside Man," to that I can only say bring it on. And, finally, Mr. Owens' nemesis in "Shoot 'Em Up," Paul Giamatti, got shortshrift from Comingsoon, but did have a few tidbits about the possibility of playing Philip K. Dick in a biopic:

"His daughters are probably going to help produce it, and there's a guy writing it right now as far as I know. I'd love to do it, if they still want me to do it when it comes around and it's all done, I'd absolutely love to do it. Definitely. We'll see what the guy comes up with."

And I know I'd love to watch it, so I can only hope it happens.

Meirelles and the Brazilian bunch

When pressed to name a favorite director, I usually punt a little bit and offer up two names: Fernando Meirelles and Phillip Noyce.

And now it seems that Mr. Meirelles is following in the footsteps of the trio of Cuaron, Inarritu and del Toro (I simply refuse to call them "amigos") and flexing his muscle on behalf of his friends.

Under the name of his O2 Filmes shingle, Meirelles is bringing new flicks from Brazilian directors Cao Hamburger and Nando Olival to Universal.

Hamburger's pic "Xingu," the more promising of the two, turns on two young brothers discovering Brazil's Amazonian forest, known as Xingu National Park, in the 1960s.

Olival's "Round Trip" takes on tourism in Brazil. A commercials director, Olival teamed with Meirelles in 2001 to direct "Maids," centering on Sao Paulo's domestic servants.

And Mr. Meirelles himself, of course, will be back in March with Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore and Gael Garcia Bernal (triple huzzah!) in "Blindness," about an epidemic of, well, blindness that strikes a modern city.

"What does it mean to be "Superbad"?

It's been at least a week since I've pimped for Jonah Hill and Michael Cera's "Superbad," so why not close out a Monday with this very funny clip (even if it has been making the rounds for a week or so already.)

The phony meltdown bit may have been copped from Cera's stunt on the set of "Knocked Up," but Mr. Hill's staged encounter with "Hot Fuzz" director Edgar Wright is still very funny, especially the explanation that he's "on Atkins." Peace out.