Het bericht dat recentelijk de meeste opschudding veroorzaakte in de filmwereld was uiteraard de melding van Peter Jackson dat hij niet de regie zal voeren over de verfilming van The Hobbit, Tolkiens voorganger van The Lord of the Rings boeken. Acteur Elijah Wood, die in de LOTR-trilogie de rol van Frodo speelde, liet tegenover Empire weten hoe hij over de ontwikkelingen denkt.

[i]"I think it's a total shame, primarily for Peter and his team – WETA, and the thousands of people that lent their artistic creativity for ten years to this world of Middle Earth. To imagine that somebody else would be given that opportunity, and that it essentially wouldn't be made by the same team. I can't imagine any of the original actors would want to join it… how can you imagine a prequel that didn't look the same, and didn't have the same continuity after all that work?