We know that ‘Mortal Engines‘ have been on Peter Jackson’s mind for quite some time but there is a reason that he only write and produced the film and didn’t direct it – ‘The Hobbit’ trilogy.
The rights for ‘Mortal Engines’ was about to expire and with Jackson’s already busy schedule with his involvement with ‘The Hobbit’ trilogy, he had to find a solution to this conflict or lose the rights to make the film:
“It was probably one of the movies I would’ve done during the time that The Hobbit was being shot, but I ended up directing that, and it sort of took me out of commission for five years. Coming out of it, we were faced with a situation where the rights to the books, which we’ve had these rights for probably nearly a decade or so, they were due to expire, and we had to move fast.”
Timing wasn’t the only thing that kept him out of the director’s chair though. Since he would not be directing ‘Mortal Engines,’ he was free to work on other aspects of the movie as well as other projects which he really wanted to tackle:
“Fran [Walsh] and I ended up after five years on The Hobbit with so many other projects that we wanted to write and develop ourselves. And in fact, we went straight into another movie with me directing it. It’s like, again, two years out of commission. Whereas with writing the script and as producers, we can write our other scripts, screenplays, and things while Christian does all the hard work. So it’s really the two of those combined. But, as a movie, I would be happy to direct this – it’s a movie I want to see. It’s good to have someone else to do the hard work with.”
Fans of Jackson’s epic work are likely chomping at the bit to see what he’ll have on his plate next. I’m curious to know if he is going to immerse himself in another franchise or do some standalone films for a bit so he doesn’t have quite the multi-year commitments that he has been up with over the past couple of decades.
Are you glad that Peter Jackson ended up not directing ‘Mortal Engines’? What other projects do you think he’ll be investing his time into down the line? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Cinema Blend