The Hobbit

[Ferox13]

I wish he'd shelve this for a bit and go back and do AT the Mountains of madness instead.

[_____V_____]

Aug 19, 2008


Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens have officially signed on to collaborate on "The Hobbit" and its sequel with director Guillermo del Toro.

The announcement, from exec producers Jackson and Walsh and New Line president Toby Emmerich, came four months after del Toro confirmed he had signed on to direct both pics.

Jackson, Walsh and Boyens teamed on penning the three screenplay adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkein’s "The Lord of the Rings." The third pic, "The Return of the King," won an Oscar for adapted screenplay.

The announcement said the production’s tentatively set to begin in late 2009, with the releases set for 2011 and 2012.

Del Toro is directing the two films back to back, with the first pic centered on a young Bilbo Baggins swept off by the wizard Gandalf to recover a lost treasure.

The sequel deals with the 60-year period between "The Hobbit" and "The Fellowship of the Ring," the first of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Warner Bros. susbisdiary New Line is overseeing development and will manage production. Both pics are being co-produced and co-financed by New Line and MGM, with Warner distributing domestically and MGM handling international.

[Vodstok]

That is soo cool... Im glad this wound up in talented hands. Del Toro has the same enthusiasm and passion that peter jackson had. And if they film in NZ and use Weta...


These are going to be great. :)

[_____V_____]

Aug 19, 2008


Like Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, del Toro has a soft-spot for the traditions of model-making and real-world workshop effects - something that he intends to carry through to The Hobbit.

He explained, "You have to be very careful not to rely on a single tool – and this is another thing that I share a passion for with Peter Jackson. We both are huge fans of 'old-world' techniques like maquettes, models, miniatures, paintings – and in the case of The Hobbit, I do intend to continue this trend and bring much more animatronics into the mix.

"We need to keep that art form alive, because it brings a textural power to the movie that ultimately affects the content. The creatures somehow seem more tactile and more tangible than CG."

It's clear that The Hobbit will continue the artistry of the model-making seen previously in del Toro's previous work – but he's not one to neglect the power of computer animation either. "I think that some creatures are better served by being completely CG and others are better served by being completely animatronic – and others are only possible if you mix the two."

We naturally enquired if he planned on continuing with a CG Gollum: "Absolutely. I think that it worked perfectly on the [Lord of the Rings] trilogy and if it ain't broke, why fix it?"

[_____V_____]

Guillermo del Toro was in London this past weekend promoting new novel The Strain, but while here, he also spilled the beans on his forthcoming adaptation of The Hobbit.

Speaking to the BBC, del Toro said that his Gollum will be similar to the Gollum from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. "From a design standpoint it will be the same creature, just a few years younger, but I think that there is never a scene quite like the 'riddles in the dark' in the trilogy. As an introduction to Gollum and a flashpoint to the origin on the character, it is so powerful and primal that it would be different in that way. We are presenting a side of the character that is very strong and beautiful and iconic."

Del Toro, whose previous credits include modern horror classics The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth, added that his Hobbit is set to scare.

"The intensity of the scenes of The Hobbit will have the intensity that they had in the book when I was a kid reading them. The spiders of Mirkwood are a pretty harrowing experience and facing the great goblin in the caves is quite a thrilling moment. The Battle of the Five Armies, the first encounter with Gollum -- there are scary moments."

However, the director pointed out that the scares arise naturally from the text. "They are already there," he explained. "We are not inventing or trying to do horror for horror's sake. We are trying to imbue those moments of intensity in the book into the film."

The Hobbit is currently in pre-production, with part one of the two-film feature set to be released in December 2011.

[scouse mac]

Just heard an interview with del Toro on BBC Radio 5 live, amongst many things he talked about the Hobbit. He said its taken them close to a year just to get the design of the dragon, Smaug, right.

Really looking forward to this.

[The_Return]

This should blow the Lord of the Rings movies right out of the fucking water. Cannot wait for it.

[_____V_____]

In a move that will surprise absolutely no-one, Guillermo del Toro has confirmed that Hugo Weaving will return to the Hobbit films, assumed to reprise his role as pointy-eared ring-bearer Elrond.

The helmer spilled the beans whilst being interviewed on BBC radio, with a sharp-eared reader on TheOneNet.Net posting the news.

Andy Serkis and Ian McKellen are also set to return as Gollum and Gandalf respectively.

The Hobbit - to be split over two movies but now without a bridge film - will be released in December 2011 and 2012.

[_____V_____]

Sir Ian McKellen, who plays the wizard Gandalf in the "Lord of the Rings" and upcoming "Hobbit" movies, has revealed that the scripts for the two films with feature plotlines culled from other J.R.R. Tolkien sources.

McKellen wouldn't elaborate any further than that, but a recent interview Guillermo del Toro gave to TotalFilm may shed some additional light on what the Gandalf actor was referring to.

"We are respecting the structure established by Professor Tolkien because the order of the adventures in 'The Hobbit' is well known to generations and generations of kids," the director said. "You don’t want to be moving stuff like that." So what's new?

"We will be integrating Gandalf’s comings and goings [into the script] because he does disappear in the book quite often," he continued. "So, as opposed to the book, we see where he goes and what happens to him."

For those who don't remember or haven't read the book, frequent references are made to Gandalf's and his fellow wizards' campaign against the shadowy Necromancer. The story never explicitly shows us what happens there, but Tolkien did elaborate on those events in his other writings.

Del Toro also spoke some on his plans for the creatures in "The Hobbit." As anyone who's seen his earlier efforts -- the two "Hellboy" movies, "Pan's Labyrinth" and so on -- knows, this is an area of particular interest for the director.

"In 'The Hobbit,' the creatures speak: Smaug has beautiful lines of dialogue; the Great Goblin has beautiful lines of dialogue; many creatures do. So we had to design them with a different approach because you are not just designing things that are scary," he said. "I wanted the Wargs to have a certain beauty so that you don't have a massively clear definition: what is beautiful is good and what is ugly is not."

It's Smaug the dragon that we should be most excited about, if del Toro's words are any indication. "The bulk of the design took about a year, solid. It’s because of the unique features of the dragon," he explained. "Early in production I came up with a very strong idea that would separate Smaug from every other dragon ever made. The problem was implementing that idea. But I think we’ve nailed it."

Sadly, we'll be waiting quite some time before we find out if del Toro's can deliver on such a grand promise. It's easy to put faith in the guy though. Between his own background and producer Peter Jackson overseeing everything, fans can probably expect another "Lord of the Rings" grand slam in "The Hobbit." A work that is at once faithful to the source and a unique work that stands on its own.

http://www.totalfilm.com/features/gu...ng-the-hobbit/

[_____V_____]

Following a week of speculation that the release of The Hobbit movies would be put back due to a delay in the delivery of the two scripts, Peter Jackson has spoken out about the issue.

Talking to Collider at The Lovely Bones premiere, Jackson saidk "Nothing has changed as far as I'm concerned. Somebody wrote something on the Internet and a lot of nonsense happened. You don't want to believe everything you read on the Internet."

Jackson then elaborated, "We were due to deliver the scripts and be shooting sometime around April and now I think I said in an interview we were shooting in June. And somehow people are now saying the film is delayed. As far as I am aware, they are not delayed at all. I am not even sure when we are going to start shooting… we are delivering the scripts just after Christmas. They'll be finished and we'll be shooting as soon as we possibly can. But you need a certain amount of time to finish the pre-production."

And when finally asked if part one of the saga would still hit in December 2011, he said, "At this stage, that is certainly the plan. Yeah."