Delay after delay after delay after delay after delay after delay has finally led Guillermo Del Toro to step down from the position of director on The Hobbit. He decided to make this decision through Lord of The Rings fansite TheOneRing.net.

“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. 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. I remain grateful to Peter, Fran and Philippa Boyens, New Line and Warner Brothers and to all my crew in New Zealand. I’ve been privileged to work in one of the greatest countries on earth with some of the best people ever in our craft and my life will be forever changed. The blessings have been plenty, but the mounting pressures of conflicting schedules have overwhelmed the time slot originally allocated for the project. Both as a co-writer and as a director, I wish the production nothing but the very best of luck and I will be first in line to see the finished product. I remain an ally to it and its makers, present and future, and fully support a smooth transition to a new director.”

Peter Jackson also had something to say :

“We feel very sad to see Guillermo leave the Hobbit, but he has kept us fully in the loop and we understand how the protracted development time on these two films, due to reasons beyond anyone’s control – has compromised his commitment to other long term projects. The bottom line is that Guillermo just didn’t feel he could commit six years to living in New Zealand, exclusively making these films, when his original commitment was for three years. Guillermo is one of the most remarkable creative spirits I’ve ever encountered and it has been a complete joy working with him. Guillermo’s strong vision is engrained into the scripts and designs of these two films, which are extremely fortunate to be blessed with his creative DNA”

I’m starting to get the feeling that this movie will probably never actually happen, which I guess is unfortunate but at least it allows Del Toro and Jackson to potentially move on to far more interesting things. Bring on Hellboy 3! Or The Lovely Bones 2…

What do you think about this, can The Hobbit can forward without Del Toro at the helm?

I took an unofficial sabbatical last week from TFS and I know you all missed me dearly. Now it’s time to catch up on the DVDs that I missed in the past two weeks. Check out the ones from the 20th and the 13th below. Read the full story

The Playlist is reporting that French actor Niels Arestrup, star of Jacques Audiard‘s Oscar-nominated A Prophet, has joined Joe Wright‘s (Atonement, The Soloist) upcoming thriller Hanna. Arestrup joins an already impressive cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana and Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, The Lovely Bones) in the title role. Ronan‘s Hanna is a 14-year-old raised by her father to become a killing machine. The report suggests that Arestrup will play the head of a French family that befriends Hanna, while Bana will portray the girl’s father.

The film is scheduled to start shooting as soon as next week, and will take place in many locations including Finland, Bavaria, Morocco, and Berlin. The script comes courtesy of first-time writer Seth Lochhead. Although Wright‘s The Soloist was an immense disappointment, he has done enough as a filmmaker to warrant my interest.

Hanna will be released by Focus Features sometime in 2011. Are you looking forward to it?

The Lovely Bones is not only a terrible adaptation of a very good book, but more importantly it’s an emotionally hollow mess of a film. This is quite possibly Peter Jackson’s weakest film to date and it defines disappointment. The wonderful ensemble is wasted, it lacks an emotional punch, the effects are lackluster at best and the script lacks any sense of coherence. This isn’t a particularly ”bad” film. It has a few bright spots scattered throughout, but it’s still ultimately an underwhelming and frustrating experience. Read the full story

In this episode of the The Film Stage podcast Jordan Raup and Dan Mecca discuss Daybreakers, Youth In Revolt, The Lovely Bones. We also talk a bit about the Spider-Man reboot and James Franco joining Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours. You can stream the episode below or download it here. (right click + save as…) Read the full story

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced its longlist for the 2010 Orange BAFTA awards, with Lone Scherfig’s An Education ahead of the potential nominees with 17 mentions including best film, director, actor Peter Sarsgaard and actress Carey Mulligan. Read the full story

Another year, another screw up from the music branch of the AMPAS. Like last year’s Dark Knight score and Jonny Greenwood’s There Will Be Blood the previous year, there are more great scores being disqualified again. Karen O‘s Where The Wild Things Are, Brian Eno‘s The Lovely Bones, and T Bone‘s Crazy Heart scores will all be missing from the Oscar’s this year. It should be noted that not submitting The Lovely Bones score was Eno‘s decision. Steve Pond from The Wrap reports the specifics below and check out his site for the full list of 81 qualifying scores. Read the full story

We are now at the end of the decade. Usually December brings the top Oscar candidates and a few heavy blockbusters. This year is no different. If you aren’t sure what’s coming out this month check out the list below. Read the full story

There’s been a recent flood of Peter Jackson-related news regarding THREE films he’s involved with,  so here it goes:

First, some early reviews of Jackson’s The Lovely Bones. In a word, mixed.

- Variety‘s says that the adaptation “the massive success Jackson has enjoyed in the intervening years with his CGI-heavy “The Lord of the Rings” saga (the source of which receives fleeting homage in a bookstore scene here) and “King Kong” has infected the way he approaches this far more intimate tale.” Bold words to say the least.

- The Guardian is singing a similar song, awarding it 2 out of 5 stars and writing: “It’s not that The Lovely Bones is a bad movie, exactly. It is handsomely made and strongly acted, while its woozy, lullaby ambience recalls Jackson’s work on the brilliant Heavenly Creatures, before he set forth on his epic voyage through The Lord of the Rings.”

- Meanwhile, AICN’s Harry Knowles digs it, as shallow as his lovely love may be: “Lovely also describes the performances throughout this film.” C’mon, Harry – try a little bit.

- THR sits somewhere in the middle: “This was never going to be an easy story to film. Using the same characters and many events, Jackson and his team tell a fundamentally different story. It’s one that is not without its tension, humor and compelling details. But it’s also a simpler, more button-pushing tale that misses the joy and heartbreak of the original.”

The film is set for a wide release December 11th, 2009, and will open, it would appear, to mixed reviews.

In other Peter Jackson news, the director told the BBC that Steven Spielberg had finished principal photography on The Adventure of Tintin but that post-production will take two full years: “it will take two years for the computer animation to be completed, producer Peter Jackson has said.”

Tintin is based on a Belgian comic trip of the same name, drawn by artist Herge, following a young Belgian reporter named Tintin and his fox terrier sidekick Snowy. It is highly anticipated in terms of new cinema technology, set to follow the highly anticipated Avatar, which sports a similar motion-capture animation via  3-D in Imax.

In that same article, Jackson dispelled the recent rumors that Guillermo del Toro’s The Hobbit (which Jackson is producing) will NOT be in 3-D (“Guillermo wants to shoot in 35mm, old-fashioned film,” Jackson said, “which suits me, because he wants to keep it in the same space as the original trilogy”.). This is surprising news, if only because it seems as though EVERY film in pre-production these days will be in 3-D. Hopefully there’s no studio pressure to change Jackson’s report.

What do you think of this news surrounding Peter Jackson and his slew of projects?

Apple has released the new trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of The Lovely Bones. The film is directed by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings, King Kong) and stars Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Michael Imperioli, and Saoirse Ronan. Check it out after the jump in HD.

Check out the trailer below. >>