The Hobbit and its two years of pre-production burden left by departed director Guillermo del Toro is still without a new captain. According to /Film, a man hailing from the wizardry world of Harry Potter may be New Line and Warner’s top choice.
That man is David Yates who many know as the director of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He’s just wrapped up photography on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2 and is likely staring at a year of pre-production before those are brushed off his plate. Warner must really like what they see so far from the final Potter films to be considering Yates for the more sprawling and mythical Hobbit world knowing he’s still up to his eyeballs in Ron, Harry and Hermione.
With MGM still strangling by an ever-tightening noose, it could be at least a year before that mess is cleaned up and The Hobbit is ready for a green light. Yates may want to see that thumbs up before signing on the dotted line while Warner and New Line may want to get a director over to New Zealand sooner rather than later.
