Hollywood Ink: No, Peter Jackson Won't Take Over The Hobbit

· Welcome back from the long Memorial Day weekend, during which it might have been worth taking an extra moment of silence for what can only mean the end of The Hobbit: Guillermo del Toro is outski, and Peter Jackson officially will not take over as director. You can't just push the start date indefinitely and/or ask the few qualified filmmakers remaining to spend years of their lives developing a project for a paralyzed studio buried under a few billion dollars of debt. Even Uwe Boll would probably turn this down now. Anyway, there's that, happy Tuesday. [Deadline]

Renee Zellweger gets into party mode, McG goes the young-adult route, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.

· Renee Zellweger has optioned the feature rights to Pillage, Brantly Martin's novel about four friends in New York who shake off their social inertia by attempting to find the "perfect party in the downtown nightlife scene." Zellweger is set to produce and presumably star, though the latter element isn't confirmed. Shooting commences early next year. [Varety]

· McG got his option on as well, jumping in to produce an adaptation of Kody Keplinger's high-school novel The DUFF -- i.e. Designated Ugly Fat Friend. The book comes out this fall; Keplinger is 20 years old. Go ahead, be jealous. [Variety]

· Luc Besson's EuropaCorp. has launched a Web site inviting the general public to produce its next film -- from script selection to co-financing. Besson's mission: To... fight piracy? "It's our way of telling web users: Don't wage war with us. Learn how to make a movie with us, and then you'll understand what's at stake when you illegally download films," he said at a press conference. Ah. Anyway, first 10,000 to sign up get their names in the closing credits. Good luck. [THR]