Where is Peter Jackson? It’s now been over a year and a half since the filmmaker’s last effort, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and while Jackson no doubt was in need of some good, long rest after completing the Hobbit trilogy, we’ve thus far heard very little about what the Oscar-winning director might tackle next aside from an episode of Doctor Who. In fact, Jackson was never supposed to direct The Hobbit in the first place—he enlisted Guillermo del Toro to take the reins for fear of repeating himself, but once del Toro left the project due to prolonged delays, Jackson stepped in and thus began a whirlwind production that grew from two movies to three mere months before An Unexpected Journey was released.

So yeah, Jackson needed some time off, but it appears he hasn’t just been sitting idly by. Speaking with New Zealand’s Time Out Magazine (via The Playlist), Steven Spielberg not only revealed that The Adventures of Tintin 2 is still alive, but Jackson is also working on a secret project for the filmmaker’s Amblin Entertainment:

“Peter was so busy with The Hobbit that it took him away from Tintin and he’s doing another film for my company now. It’s a secret, nobody knows about it. Then after that he’ll do Tintin.”

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Image via Warner Bros.

The Hobbit films were, by and large, a major letdown and felt very much like a director who had been given too many resources and too much control—one paralyzed by choice. In the wake of The Hobbit, Jackson expressed his desire to go back to making small New Zealand films, so I’m curious to know if this Spielberg project fits that bill or if it’s something bigger.

Jackson is no doubt a talented filmmaker, but I do hope he takes a serious step back in scale for his next feature and returns to his roots. What made films like Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, or even The Fellowship of the Ring so special was the creativity involved in bringing those stories to life. On The Hobbit, Jackson had all the technological tools he could ever want, which seems to have detracted from story and character development. So here’s hoping his next movie is entirely different. As for Tintin 2, as you’ll remember the initial plan with Spielberg’s first foray into animated feature territory was that Jackson produced that effort, then the two would switch roles for Tintin 2 with Jackson directing. Spielberg’s film wasn’t exactly a smash hit, so audiences weren’t begging for the sequel and the timeline of the follow-up wasn’t so expedited. Will Tintin 2 actually happen? Who knows, but I’d be curious to see what Jackson does with an entirely animated effort—with Battle of the Five Armies he's already made 3/4ths of an animated feature already.

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Image via Paramount Pictures
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Image via Paramount