With a perfect sense of irony, it appears that the spirit of the one ring has been reforged even as we spent the day watching its demise. But first, a recap:

Just to get in the spirit of things I threw together a quick display of some of my LOTR paraphenalia on the coffee table and we started (a bit late) with breakfast and Fellowship around 9:45 a.m. yesterday. Razz was in absolute bliss all day as he spent most of it bundled up in his blanket on the couch.

The day was filled with great food, including a dinner of turkey legs, green bean casserole, and red potatoes (“what’s taters, precious?”). The end of all things came at 12:11 a.m. this morning. If you’ve read my comment in my birthday post then you know that we all had a very good time. By the end I was positively buzzing with elation, and that sense of melancholy that always comes with watching these films. Thank you so much Mary and Tori for making my day so special. Actually, thank everyone for making my birthday week a complete blast. I got to put up the Christmas tree and outside Christmas lights over the weekend, went to a guy’s night out on Monday to see the new Bond film (review forthcoming), and then had yesterday’s glorious day.

As I mentioned above, the ring’s influence seems to continue as it was announced yesterday that “In a letter posted on Theonering.com., Jackson and partner Fran Walsh said an executive from New Line Cinema had called to tell them the studio was moving ahead with “The Hobbit” without him. Last week, Mark Ordesky called Ken (Kamins, Jackson’s manager) and told him that New Line would no longer be requiring our services on `The Hobbit’ and the LOTR `prequel,'” the 45-year-old New Zealand director wrote.This was a courtesy call to let us know that the studio was now actively looking to hire another filmmaker for both projects,” he said”.

As with everything else in the world this appears to be entirely about money: “The announcement came amid an ongoing dispute between Wingnut Films and New Line Cinema over the amount Jackson was paid for “The Fellowship of the Ring,” including DVD payments.While Jackson hasn’t said how much he believes he was underpaid, The New York Times last year quoted his lawyers as saying it was as much as $100 million. He is suing New Line Cinema over the shortfall.”

I am, of course, completely biased and tend to side with Peter Jackson over this. Despite his current fame and fortune he had neither when he made Fellowship and if they are truly owed money then I believe they should be paid. What makes it even more disappointing is that Mark Ordesky was instrumental in getting the LOTR films made in the first place and he is all over the documentaries for the three films sharing how magical the experience of making them was. Despite how special the making of that film was, and one trip through the documentaries will drive that point home, its sad to see this taint being put on that experience.

Its not that another director/writer can’t do a good job with the Hobbit, I am sure there are others out there with the same passion for the story that Peter, Philippa, and Fran have, but this film should have the look, feel, and love for the material that the trilogy has and I think this will be hard to accomplish without that team. I hope New Line and PJ somehow can work out their differences enough to allow WETA to do all the effects, etc. I am disappointed by this, as I will be disappointed if Ian Holm isn’t the one chosen to be Bilbo. Why do so many good things have to be tainted by selfishness and greed?

You can read Peter Jackson’s statement about this here (scroll down to Nov. 20th post).

Despite this I had a wonderful birthday and thank you all again for the well wishes, they are appreciated more than you may know. Have a terrific Thanksgiving weekend everyone!