Guillermo Leaves The Hobbit!

So I know I'm late on this but i did want put my two cents into the hat on this one.

I was never so happy about a film when I heard that fantasy movie GOD (If you doubt that check out his film Pan's Labyrinth) Guillermo Tel Doro was directing and co-writing the Lord of the Rings prequel with Peter Jackson. He was a perfect choice for this job. He has a great handle on creature design (again Pan's Labyrinth) and has worked exclusively in the fantasy genre his entire career. (Blade 2 might be a split hair)

A little over a week ago he announced through the site theonering.net that he was leaving the project after two years in pre-production. This made me sad! King Arthur being turned down by the Black Knight sad! (Monty Python reference ALERT)

Still after reading Guillermo's message I was happy to see that that awful generic phrase film makers always use when they leave projects didn't appear in his message. I speak of that disgraceful nonsecular "creative differences."

Guillermo did seem genuinely upset about this decision to leave the project and hopeful the resulting film will be good.
His creature and production design will still appear in the film and the screenplay is written by Guillermo and Lord of the Rings writers Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens.

The reasons he choose to leave the project seems quite reasonable. After two years on the project (he moved his life and family to New Zealand) they were no closer to getting the film made. After all this time cash strapped studio MGM still hadn't greenlit the film. Del Toro's frustration is well founded.
He also had commitments to projects with Universal. One is the very interesting prospect of a Del Toro version of Frankenstein. Another is his take on Pinocchio.

Del Toro's effect on the film will still very much evident in the finished film, but new director will obviously bring his/her own look too. The smart money now it on PJ to take over the project, which would of course be amazing, but the thought of the unmade Del Toro Hobbit film aches.

It stacks up against the great unmade films...Paul Greengrass's Watchmen, David Cronenberg's Total Recall, Terry Gilliam's Forrest Gump.

All these films were made eventually by other directors, my only hope is that whoever takes over the Hobbit from Del Toro honours his commitment to the project. With PJ still producing that is a fair bet...
Still only time will tell!