Del Toro To Direct Hobbit Films
"In a major step forward on 'The Hobbit,' Guillermo del Toro has signed on to direct the New Line-MGM tentpole and its sequel.The widely expected announcement -- which had been rumored for several weeks -- came Thursday afternoon jointly from exec producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, New Line president Toby Emmerich, and Mary Parent, newly named chief of MGM’s Worldwide Motion Picture Group.
Del Toro’s moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work with Jackson and his Wingnut and Weta production teams. He’ll direct the two films back to back, with the sequel dealing with the 60-year period between 'The Hobbit' and 'The Fellowship of the Ring,' the first of the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy."
To read the rest of Dave McNary's Variety article, click here.Labels: article, book to movie, dave mcnary, guillermo del toro, j.r.r. tolkien, new line cinema, the hobbit, variety
posted by Jeff Pidgeon at
11:52 AM
6 Comments:
Interesting. What do you think of this news, Jeff?
Well, at least it sounds like Peter Jackson is going to be involved in the film.
While fans might not be as excited about "The Hobbit" films with someone else in the director's chair, Jackson's involvement is an encouraging sign.
I don't think this decision was taken lightly, Peter Jackson sure thought about who to leave in charge, Del Toro is a huge fan of Tolkien and he's not the type of person to copy/paste a visual style like maybe Tim Burton would do.
So, I have no worries!!
What do you think Jeff???
I think I've seen three Del Toro films - Chronos, Hellboy, and Pan's Labyrinth. I didn't really like any of them, although they all had good and/or interesting qualities.
I can't blame Jackson for leaving Middle-Earth after the Rings trilogy, but I can't say that I'm excited by this casting. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a lot of directors that would be a good choice to make The Hobbit. I really hadn't seen a good wizards/magic/fantasy film before the Lord of the Rings movies.
The only person that I can think of might be Alfonso Cuarón (even though I didn't like Children of Men all that much). He made the best Harry Potter movie, so I feel he's got a knack for effects, storytelling and fantasy, which is pretty rare.
Wow..you didn't care for Children of Men? I thought it was a pretty good movie, pessimistic for the most part but on par with Blade Runner as far as world building goes. I found it symbolically topical for our times.
Hellboy was pretty rough I must say, hopefully Del Toro won't run all over the source material like he did with Mignola's work. I cringed a lot in the theatre watching Mike's creation getting the roughed up by the hairbrained ideas that Guillermo came up with.
Almost everyone I know really liked Children (plus, see: Rotten Tomatoes), but it just didn't seem like a very compelling character story. Man gets mission. Man overcomes obstacles. Man succeeds.
It was very well executed and meticulously realized, but after a while I got tired of it. The world's gone to Hell in a handbasket. Bombings. Internment camps. Pollution. Sterility. Suicides. This Is A Lot Like What We're Going Through Now. I get it!
I guess it felt to me like one of those Sci-Fi films from the seventies where it's mainly about the idea than about the characters. The only problem was that I didn't feel like the characters or the concept could carry a movie.
Anyway, there is the distinct possibility that H2 might just get loaded up with weird characters and have even less story than the first one. I hope not.
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