Sam Raimi to Direct Drag Me to Hell, The Hobbit?

A very interesting article in Variety today. As you know, these guys don’t report anything until they’ve gotten their facts straight (well, most of the time, or at least, more often than we Internet dorks do), so when they say Sam Raimi will be returning to his horror roots for “Drag Me to Hell” we believe them, and when they mention that afterwards he’ll be directing “The Hobbit”…?

More about Raimi’s return to videostore horror with “Drag me to Hell”:

The morality tale about the unwitting recipient of a supernatural curse will go into production early next year…

“Sam calls it a ’spook-a-blast,’ a wild ride with all the chills and spills that ‘Evil Dead’ delivered, without relying on the excessive violence of that film,” Tapert said. “When one has done three very expensive movies, they get used to eating caviar. Sam will have to ponder what it means to come down from the mountaintop for a moment.”

Um, a Sam Raimi that doesn’t “rely on the excessive violence”? What’s the point?

Then this little tidbit about “The Hobbit”:

After “Drag Me to Hell,” Raimi is expected to go right back up the mountaintop and take the helm of “The Hobbit” films for New Line and MGM now that Peter Jackson has made it clear he won’t direct.

Interesting…