The Hobbit film Looses It's Director Guillermo del Toro

Image via Wikipedia

Director Guillermo del Toro quits The Hobbit film over production delay.

"In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life," del Toro told a "Lord of the Rings" fan website.

"After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien's Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures," he said, noting the film still hadn't been given the green light by MGM, the struggling Hollywood studio.

He is not totally leaving the project behind.  del Toro plans to continue working with Peter Jackson and his wife Fran Walsh on the screenplay.

It's a sad blow to the film but I understand where del Toro is coming from.  He has many other projects to work on.

Don't think of this as a delay on the project.  Think of The Hobbit project as a back burner movie project, or a nice theoretical project.  It will stay as such until it gets both a solid screenplay and the green light aka funding.  Only then will it have the chance to move forward.

(via Entertainment News)