Here's the reason why he wasn't going to do the movie....glad to hear he's going forward with it.

Copied from another site...


"The real reason has to do with a lawsuit Jackson and company have pending against New Line that has to do with "certain accounting pratices" that took place following The Fellowship of the Ring. Recently, there was word that MGM was trying to obtain the rights to LOTR from New Line in order to make two films, one being an adaptation of The Hobbit. MGM claimed they were in talks with Peter Jackson. However, Jackson was not present for these talks, only MGM's vivid imagination was. According to Jackson, New Line will be going ahead with the films, but since Jackson refuses to make them until the lawsuit is discussed, New Line has told him they "would no longer be requiring our services on The Hobbit and the LOTR prequel." And if that doesn't jam the nail straight into the coffin inside our hearts, these final words from Jackson certainly will: "This outcome is not what we anticipated or wanted, but neither do we see any positive value in bitterness and rancor. We now have no choice but to let the idea of a film of The Hobbit go and move forward with other projects."