Director Guillermo del Toro has announced he is leaving as director of the Hobbit film projects to be produced by Peter Jackson. The ambitious prequels to The Lord of the Rings films have still not gotten the formal start date from cash-strapped MGM which is struggling to survive a cash crisis. del Toro said he will continue to co-write the screenplays with Jackson but felt the uncertainty at MGM is forcing him to move on to other projects. The studio has no films in production at the present time as it scrambles to find a new buyer. Jackson was putting a more optimistic spin on the Hobbit project. Click here for more