Director quits The Hobbit over production delay
“In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life,” del Toro told a Lord of the Rings fan website.
“After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures,” he said, noting the film still hadn’t been given the green light by MGM, the struggling Hollywood studio.