LOTR, Hobbit Vets Assemble for New Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movie

[UPDATE] Peter Jackson has now published a Facebook post about today's Mortal Engines news.

"We've had the rights to Philip's book series for several years, but have had to wait for the right time to make it," he said.

"If you haven’t read the books, you should. They present a stunning look into the future, when all of Earth’s major cities are now mounted on wheels, roaming across the landscape as massive 'Traction Cities.' Our society has build itself on the principals of Municipal Darwinism - this basically involves the bigger cities hunting down, and consuming, the smaller ones. And that's only the backdrop to an original and emotional personal story."

He also confirmed that casting details are coming later and that Weta Workshop and Weta Digital are involved. Read the full post in the embed below

The original story is below.

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh have announced that their film adaption of the Philip Reeve novel series Mortal Engines has landed at Universal and MRC.

According to Deadline, Christian Rivers, who worked on Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, will make his feature film directorial debut with the project. Rivers won an Oscar for his work on another Jackson project, King Kong. Production is slated to start in spring 2017 in New Zealand, where The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were made.

The script for Mortal Engines was adapted by Philippa Boyens. You may remember she was part of the writing team for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

According to Deadline, Jackson and Walsh have been working on the Mortal Engines movie since at least 2009, when it was suggested that Jackson might direct the film.

"Christian is one of my closest collaborators," Jackson said in a statement. "The combination of emotion and jaw-dropping visuals in Mortal Engines makes this the perfect movie for his move into feature directing. What Christian intends to do with Philip Reeve's terrific story is going to result in an original and spectacular movie. I wish I could see it tomorrow!"

Not familiar with Mortal Engines? Deadline explains: "It's a distant future where the cities of earth roam the globe on huge wheels, consuming smaller towns and processing all reusable materials to create power to run the engines that make the cities mobile and able to gobble up more and more of the planet’s dwindling resources. London's mayor has bigger plans than the domination of a small town and several young people try to stop him."

Go to Deadline to get the full story.