Peter Jackson 'Quitting Blockbusters After Hobbit'

The Hobbittrilogy.

Speaking to The New Zealand Herald, the filmmaker revealed that he and wife Fran Walsh are planning to tackle smaller-scale New Zealand-based projects once his involvement with the Tolkien trilogy is complete.

"We have got a few bits and pieces that we are working on, Fran and I," he explained.

"The things that we are most excited about are some New Zealand stories.

"We just want to step off the Hollywood blockbuster thing for a while and we've had a few New Zealand stories in line for a while that we think would make great films."

And he confessed that he had planned to return to smaller projects sooner - but then had an unexpected journey back to Middle Earth for The Hobbit.

"In some respects, in terms of my remaining film-making career, this was a five-year chunk that was kind of taken out of it unexpectedly.

"My future is five years less than I thought it was."

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug is released on 13 December. A new batch of posters was recently released.

SEE MORE IMAGES FROM THE HOBBIT HERE!