This is fantastic news -- well, if it turns out to be true! Guillermo Del Toro, the talented Mexican director of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, seems a shoe-in to direct The Hobbit for New Line Cinema. It hasn't been officially confirmed yet, but a number of sources are reporting it as extremely likely, with Del Toro now in serious talks with the studio...
The Lord Of The Rings prequel is being set-up by Peter Jackson, who recently came back onboard with New Line after a legal dispuite with them. It's expected that Del Toro and Jackson will both work on adapting J.R.R Tolkien's book into two films, each likely to be budgeted at $150 million.
The first film will be a direct translation of The Hobbit book, but the second will be an original adventure that foreshadows the Rings trilogy -- using information from long appendixes Tolkien wrote on Middle Earth.
I think this is a brilliant choice. Del Toro has a similar independent streak like Jackson – alternating big Hollywood films like Mimic and Hellboy with smaller, foreign-language fare like The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth. He obviously has a background with fantasy filmmaking, has proven he can handle big productions, has the geek credentials to do a committed job, and a unique visual style that would compliment the tone Jackson employed on Rings, but wouldn't just copy it...
You see, as much as I loved Jackson's work on Rings, I’d like to see someone else dabble in the Middle Earth he created. So, with Jackson as producer/creative guide, the WETA team back making all the costumes/make-up/FX, and the likely return of Ian McKellen (Gandalph) and Andy Serkis (Gollum), I'm extremely happy...
Oh, and I'm sure Del Toro would find a role for his own "virtual actor" Doug Jones: who stars as Abe Sapien in the Hellboy films, played The Faun in Pan's Labyrinth, and recently worked with WETA to bring the Silver Surfer to life in Fantastic Four 2.
Whatever happens, production on The Hobbit films is expected to start in 2009, with the films slated for release in 2010 and 2011.
The Lord Of The Rings prequel is being set-up by Peter Jackson, who recently came back onboard with New Line after a legal dispuite with them. It's expected that Del Toro and Jackson will both work on adapting J.R.R Tolkien's book into two films, each likely to be budgeted at $150 million.
The first film will be a direct translation of The Hobbit book, but the second will be an original adventure that foreshadows the Rings trilogy -- using information from long appendixes Tolkien wrote on Middle Earth.
I think this is a brilliant choice. Del Toro has a similar independent streak like Jackson – alternating big Hollywood films like Mimic and Hellboy with smaller, foreign-language fare like The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth. He obviously has a background with fantasy filmmaking, has proven he can handle big productions, has the geek credentials to do a committed job, and a unique visual style that would compliment the tone Jackson employed on Rings, but wouldn't just copy it...
You see, as much as I loved Jackson's work on Rings, I’d like to see someone else dabble in the Middle Earth he created. So, with Jackson as producer/creative guide, the WETA team back making all the costumes/make-up/FX, and the likely return of Ian McKellen (Gandalph) and Andy Serkis (Gollum), I'm extremely happy...
Oh, and I'm sure Del Toro would find a role for his own "virtual actor" Doug Jones: who stars as Abe Sapien in the Hellboy films, played The Faun in Pan's Labyrinth, and recently worked with WETA to bring the Silver Surfer to life in Fantastic Four 2.
Whatever happens, production on The Hobbit films is expected to start in 2009, with the films slated for release in 2010 and 2011.
