Peter Jackson ‘may direct Hobbit’ as del Toro quits

Film director Peter Jackson, has said that he may step into the breach to direct the JRR Tolkien 'prequel' The Hobbit following the shock departure of its director Guillermo del Toro.

Del Toro announced yesterday that he had quit the two movies based on Tolkien's 1937 book because of his frustration over delays to filming. Speaking to Tolkien fan site The One Ring, Del Toro said it was with "great regret" that he would not be directing the films. "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," he added.

The Hobbit is yet to be officially green-lit by MGM due to financial troubles at the film studio, which has already delayed work indefinitely on the next James Bond film.

In 2008, when del Toro was hired to direct The Hobbit, he described the job as "an absolute dream come true". But although del Toro, the Mexican director who is best known for Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy, was happy to move to New Zealand for three years to co-write the screenplays and direct the films, the latest delays would mean committing to spending six years exclusively working on The Hobbit. Del Toro will continue to help write the film's scripts, he said.

Meanwhile the film's executive producer and screenwriter Peter Jackson has told a New Zealand newspaper that he may direct the The Hobbit himself, if he cannot find a suitable replacement.

Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, told The Dominion Post that he would not rule out directing the two films himself. "If that's what I have to do to protect [MGM's partner] Warner Bros' investment, then obviously that's one angle which I'll explore."

This would depend, however, on two other films which he has recently signed up to write and direct. "The other studios may not let me out of the contracts." ·