Good news today: “a settlement announced on Tuesday between Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema holds the promise that peace will break out in Middle Earth and that fans could see the first of two resulting movies by December 2010.” Though prior commitments will keep Peter Jackson from directing, “Mr. Jackson and his wife, Ms. Walsh, will be executive producers of the Hobbit films, and they will share with New Line the right to approve all creative elements: director, screenwriter, script, cast, filming location, even the visual-effects company used (as if there were any doubt that his Weta Digital would be chosen). ‘They can assure that the films will be made with the same level of quality as if they were writing and directing,’ Mr. Jackson’s manager, Ken Kamins, said.”

There will actually be two films, one, apparently the film version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and the other a sequel “is described as bridging the 60-year gap between the end of J. R. R. Tolkien’s “Hobbit” and the beginning of the “Rings” trilogy.”

I’m both happy and disappointed by the news. I think as essential to the film’s success as Peter Jackson’s direction was the script developed by Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, who, like Jackson, have prior commitments.