[HairOfTheDog]

Interesting that the story isn't that New Line might still buy the rights, but rather that MGM wants Jackson for an MGM production.

[maquiladora]

Yeah, it's confusing. As far as I was aware, up until recently MGM only held the North American distribution rights for the The Hobbit. New Line still hold the production rights to make the movie and the international distribution rights.

But from the way Sloan is talking it sounds like they've probably come to some sort of deal. A project like this is just too good to be left on the shelf, it's an instant blockbuster with a huge built in audience, hence why they are wanting to make two movies and not just one, sort of the antithesis of the problem with LOTR and Harvey Weinstein!