Peter Jackson hasn’t directed a film since wrapping his second Middle Earth trilogy, The Hobbit, back in 2014, although he has stayed busy in the producing game. But reportedly he’s now looking to get back in the saddle and is deciding that his next project will either be a superhero movie for DC, or, almost inexplicably, a return to Middle Earth as a part of Amazon’s upcoming Lord Of The Rings TV series.
The latter would be a baffling move that even Tolkien super fans would probably question. Clearly Jackson loves the source material, but he already returned to Middle Earth once with The Hobbit trilogy, which never matched the heights of the original Lord Of The Rings and even took some of the shine off his previous work, and returning for a third time just doesn’t seem like a smart move.
Amazon likely wouldn’t care as they know securing Jackson would help lure in practically every fan of the original trilogy, but they’d risk just making a poorer version of those classic early 2000s films, even if the scope of the series is expected to practically cover every single thing in the books.
Helming a superhero movie seems like a far better option for Jackson, who’s proven to be adept at directing large scale projects and with the right character could bring something really interesting into the superhero genre. If he did indeed sign on to DC, he’s join an exciting collection of directors such as his pal Steven Spielberg, as DC tries to rebuild their wounded brand.
We’ll wait and see what Jackson decides, but after seeing production of The Hobbit films take a huge toll on him – who knew stretching what was originally two movies into three at the last minute would be a bad idea? – it would take a lot of love, and maybe some masochism, for him to return to Middle Earth a third time.
#Peace.Love.Jackson
