Yesterday we reported that there were rumours David Yates was the top choice to direct The Hobbit now that Guillermo Del Toro has left. Now Deadline is saying that while Yates is indeed being considered, so are the likes of David Dobkin and Brett Ratner, and as yet no offer has been made.
And one of the reasons no offer has been made is that Warner and MGM are currently still after the man who would seem most obvious for the job, Peter Jackson, and they're no going to offer the job to anyone else, until they've got a definitive no from him. However Jackson has already stated the problem with this, as shortly after Del Toro left, he said, "If [directing the films is] what I have to do to protect Warner Bros’ investment, then obviously that’s one angle which I’ll explore…The other studios may not let me out of the contracts."
Jackson has numerous commitments all over the place, not least that he's meant to start the motion capture part of a Tintin movie next year. If he makes The Hobbit films, that'll essentially be two years when he won't be able to do anything else, so anything he currently has planned would have to be shelved. Of course Warner/MGM know he's the best man they could get, not least because he's co-written the scripts, but he really doesn't sound that keen.
However, if Jackson refuses, surely they can do better than either David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers, Fred Claus) or Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, X-Men 3)? Perhaps those names were brought up just to try and scare Jackson into saying yes.