Peter Jackson's career post-Lord of the Rings has been an interesting one.
The Lovely Bones was an underappreciated film, whilst King Kong was... well, a bit of a mess. The Hobbit, he can't really be blamed for how it went as he basically had zero time to get pre-production going. In fact, we covered that whole mess before. This time, however, Jackson's got no excuses to fall back on if this doesn't work.
2018 will see Jackson reteam with screenwriters Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh of Lord Of The Rings fame for The Mortal Engines, based on the novel by Phillip Reeves.
The film is set in a dystopian future where Earth's few remaining cities now traverse the planet on giant mechanical legs and battle one another for resources. So think Pacific Rim, except it's cities instead of Jaegers and you're on the right track. It's obviously going to be CGI heavy, which is right within Jackson's wheelhouse and it's an adaptation, so again all in Jackson's wheelhouse.
As mentioned, The Hobbit trilogy was something of a mess and that was primarily down to the fact that Jackson was brought on at the eleventh hour after Guillermo Del Toro walked off the project and left it to him. What's also interesting about Mortal Engines is that it's slated for a December 14th, 2018 release and is going head-to-head - well, more or less going head-to-head - with James Cameron's Avatar sequel, which is due for release on December 21st.
Who wins? You decide. Literally. It's all about what film audiences turn out for, folks. Walking cities or blue aliens. Take your pick.
Via Variety
