I think they would love to do the Hobbit-movie just because of the money it would produce them. It's just that in this "post credit-crunch" -world no one is willing to invest anything on anything that doesn't materialise itself in a day or two. Let's forget the quartal economy: the truth of the financial markets is day by day now. So nothing that takes time gets invested in.
And that to be sure is the problem of our modern capitalism. The quartal economy was a bad thing but this Day-to-Day economy is even worse. So what happens to any project where you can't cash yourself out within a day? So if it was that the oil-firms were reluctant to invest in new refineries a year ago now the film companies are afraid to invest in movies. Both make weekly/quartal losses for future gains but in this climate no one wishes to take the risk as the investers are nervous for any signs of spending instead of gaining immediately...
