A film of the Hobbit, the prequel to the Lord of the Rings, is being held up by a legal tangle between two film studios, said director Peter Jackson.
Jackson said that although New Line Cinema has the rights to make the film, MGM has the rights to distribute it.
He said: "Their lawyers are going to have a huge amount of fun over the next few years trying to work it all out."
Fresh from winning the Oscar for best director, Jackson is now remaking King Kong, due out in 2005.
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