'Golden Compass' future tarnished?

Read a couple of interesting pieces of information in the last couple of days that make me wonder if the sequels to "The Golden Compass" may not get made after all.

I originally thought that the overseas box office, which is a bit higher than the U.S. box office, for the film would push New Line Cinema to greenlight the next two films of the His Dark Materials trilogy. In an Entertainment Weekly article (Dec. 21 issue), however, it says that New Line sold the rights to the international distribution, so NL is essentially stuck with whatever the film makes in the U.S. (plus DVD sales). Now I'm not sure how much those distributions rights brought in to New Line and they may still recoup their $180 million production fee, but it looks like that will be cutting it close. It may prove to be too much of a risk to greenlight the second and third films. So there is hope after all.

This brings back to the trilogy that set a new standard for fantasy filmmaking and was "inspired" folks to try to bring "The Golden Compass" to the screen -- The Lord of the Rings. The billions of dollars that LotR brought in paid for the mistake of "Golden Compass," and realizing that they may take a bath in this endeavor, New Line has made nice with LotR trilogy director Peter Jackson and announced that he will be in charge of a production of The Hobbit. This seemed highly unlikely for some time, as Jackson and New Line bickered over the massive royalties for LotR. But things seem to be patched enough that this is going to be greeenlit.