Discuss: Who's to direct "The Hobbit"?

Some of you may have been following any latest news on the pre-production of The Hobbit (probably not). But really anyone who loves the trilogy (which is everyone) should be mildly interested since now the film is without a director. At first, the original writers of the trilogy (Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh) were set to write the thing along with Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) who was also set to direct. Now since Del Toro has 10 listed projects in development according to IMDB, a number of them he's also directing, he's dropped out because The Hobbit is just taking too long to get everything ready for filming.

So the question is: which great (or not great) director will take over now? There's been suggestions flying all over movie blogs and websites for a while now with the likes of Neil Blomkamp (District 9) and Sam Raimi (Spiderman) thrown in. One poll I saw even included Tarantino. I don't know what idiot did that, but he should be shot. And now there's a rumor that David Yates, director of the last two Harry Potter movies including parts 1 & 2 of the Deathly Hollows, is at the top of the list. 

There's always such madness when it comes to movie rumors and people throwing out their first choices all over the place, and I do have my own favorites. Yates probably wouldn't be a bad choice considering his work on the Potter series are the best films of the bunch, but can he really capture the feel of Middle-Earth like Jackson did? Which reminds me, why doesn't Jackson just direct The Hobbit?

It's what I along with the rest of the internet world has been wondering for quite some time now and apparently it has something to do with the big fight argument Jackson got in to with the studio over how much he was paid for the last LOTR films. Anyway, now he's the last person they want. But seriously, as we all know, the only thing a studio cares about is money. There's already been comments made about making Hobbit in 3D (which is really more of a guarantee these days). And the only reason most studios want 3D is more expensive tickets.

To me it's obvious that Hobbit will make LOADS of money if Middle-Earth returns with Jackson at the helm along with the rest of the cast (most of whom have already said they'd be more likely to return if Jackson is in charge). Why hasn't this occurred to MGM? Why can't they just suck it up and admit that it will be better for maintaining the spirit of the trilogy and for them cash-wise? Every fan out there is just hoping Hobbit will return with the same grandeur and heart that the trilogy had. And the worst thing you can do to change that is to let someone else have their way with it.

So come on MGM, just let Jackson do it and forget about all those other directors who just want to put their name in amongst the Tolkien legacy.