Still No Greenlight on The Hobbit

In the same fashion I ignore Dan Aykroyd chatting up Ghostbusters 3 and everything coming outta Mark Millar's big mouth, The Hobbit is a topic I pay little to no attention to. Despite what anyone claims until MGM settles their mullah-woes (or sells off their share of the rights, and of course, that'll never happen), nothing will become of the two-movie Lord of the Rings prequel.

That's why I just shook my head and opted not to cover the "Hobbit will get the greenlight in a day or so and filming will start in January" story originating at the start of this week. It smelled like bullshit especially when paying attention to what's been going on.

Thankfully, I wasn't the only one as Peter Jackson admitted to Empire that there's no greenlight in sight on The Hobbit:

"We've seen these reports before, reports saying there was going to be a greenlight in a couple of days — well, a week's gone by and there isn’t one. You can't believe everything you read. There is only one thing you want to believe and that’s when the studio announces a greenlight. As far as I'm aware that's not going to be today."

Jackson (who also claims he's not secured a deal to direct – not sure I believe him though) remains optimistic this'll all work out. To be fair, the long-talked about Spyglass deal is inching closer to a reality. If things goes smoothly (and enough creditors approve), the studio could return refreshed from a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan as early as Christmas. That's assuming there aren't any more pot holes on the road towards their reemergence.

But that's going to take time either way and this constant insistence of making those December 2012 and 2013 release dates on The Hobbit flies directly in the face of common sense and logic. 2012 isn't doable under these circumstances, folks.