The reason why peter jackson quit the movie is because of a lawsuit between him and new line cinema. But what if new line dont get to make the movie? Well this might be the case as pproducer saul zaents has predicted that new lines rights to the licence will run out and then he will team up with mgm (famous for producing the james bond movies) and he says all of this will happen next year. And he has said to when picking the director Peter jackson will be his pick of the job. In a statemen zaents said

"It will definitely be shot by Peter Jackson.The question is only when. He wants to shoot another movie first. Next year the rights to The Hobbit will fall back to my company. I suppose that Peter will wait because he knows that he will make the best deal with us. And he is fed up with the studios: to get his profit share on the rings trilogy he had to sue New Line. With us in contrast he knows that he will be paid fairly and artistically supported without reservation."

Although Jackson has not agreed to any propositions yet zaents also said that the movie should start filming in 2008/09 and that we will most likely end up with a two part movie.However noone knows if new line will try to rush a hobbit movie out before their license expires.