The trailer for the upcoming Mortal Engines fantasy film is finally here, and if you were to look at all the headlines coming out without actually reading the articles, you may be getting the impression that Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit director Peter Jackson is helming the project. But no, despite his name being plastered all over the place, he is only serving as one of the producers of the film, with Christian Rivers actually helming it.

But why is this the case? Why would he not direct this project — a project he’s so clearly invested in? Speaking with CinemaBlend, Jackson gave his reasons for this, and it sounds like it mainly had to do with The Hobbit and timing.

“It was probably one of the movies I would’ve done during the time that The Hobbit was being shot, but I ended up directing that, and it sort of took me out of commission for five years. Coming out of it, we were faced with a situation where the rights to the books, which we’ve had these rights for probably nearly a decade or so, they were due to expire and we had to move fast.”

RELATED – Mortal Engines Official Trailer

This wasn’t all though. When all said and done, if he REALLY wanted to do it, he could have. But it sounds like he and his team had other original ideas they wanted to pursue.

“Fran [Walsh] and I ended up after five years on The Hobbit with so many other projects that we wanted to write and develop ourselves. And in fact, we went straight into another movie with me directing it. It’s like, again, two years out of commission. Whereas with writing the script and as producers, we can write our other scripts, screenplays, and things while Christian does all the hard work. So it’s really the two of those combined. But, as a movie, I would be happy to direct this – it’s a movie I want to see. It’s good to have someone else to do the hard work with.”

Do you think this was a good move, or is a project like Mortal Engines one that could have benefited from the steady hand of Peter Jackson? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: CinemaBlend