Del Toro to helm The Hobbit!

[Jnyusa]

Two more articles about the movies:

Mostly a rehash:

Wired Magazine

Discussion by Critics:

411 Movies Roundtable

[Jnyusa]

Here's an opposing view from Andrew O'Hehir at Salon.

He makes interesting points, imo.

BLEAH!

[Primula Baggins]

Yes, Ax posted the Salon article when it first came out in April:

viewtopic.php?p=114521#114521

My reaction, in short form, is that neither del Toro nor PJ is as arrogant as Lucas, and both are more talented. I think we're safe from The Phantom Menace II.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I split off the casting speculation (including the discussion about Hobbit aging, since I think it is relevant to casting), to a separate thread.

[yovargas]

I saw Hellboy II last night. It's getting really good reviews. But for me, man, it's visually wonderful and brimming with awesome imagination, but apart from the visuals I find a very distinct lack of wonder or imagination. The characters and the plot just feel flat flat flat to me. Here's hoping he can bring more to The Hobbit than just teh pretty.

[Primula Baggins]

I haven't seen it yet, though I will (my son says it's wonderful)—but I wonder if the lack you sense was due to the source material. Which is something we need not worry about much with The Hobbit.

GdT's comments about the characters in The Hobbit make me believe that he "gets it." If he can bring that vision of those characters to the screen, we will be very lucky.

[Frelga]

GdT's comments about the characters in The Hobbit make me believe that he "gets it." If he can bring that vision of those characters to the screen, we will be very lucky.

Admittedly, I haven't seen any movies by Del Toro, so I am reserving judgment. Going strictly by his comments, I am not convinced that he "gets it". He talks about Beorns, and spiders, and dragons, but what about Bilbo? I am not sure that chubby little guys with hairy feet interest him that much.

[Primula Baggins]

I may have read different interviews than you have, Frelga, but his comments on Bilbo that I recall were reassuring to me. Remember how visual he is; he tends to talk about the characters and events that are going to make great visuals more than any others. But when he sits down and talks about the story, he seems to me to understand it quite well. It's not that he will shortchange Bilbo, it's just that he has more fun talking about Smaug.

I'll see later if I can find some links.

[yovargas]

It's not that he will shortchange Bilbo, it's just that he has more fun talking about Smaug.

And really, who doesn't!

[Primula Baggins]

Aint-It-Cool News interview (scroll down for Hobbit nuggets; also, there's adult language and sometimes squicky visuals on this site)

Some newish bits:

Quint: You are writing it with Peter [Jackson], Fran [Walsh], and Philippa [ Boyens] right?

Guillermo Del Toro: Yep, but the scope of those movies are staggering. I know it sounds like a leisured preproduction when you say a year and a half or two, but it isn’t. We have to create a lot of new stuff for the first movie and we have to recreate a lot of the stuff they did on the trilogy they did for the second movie, so it’s not even prepping two movies consecutively, it’s prepping two completely different movies in a sense, because the second movie is in many ways an exercise in mimicry and at a certain point it has to evolve into the lensing, the color palette, the texture palette, and the feel of the trilogy…

Quint: …because if it doesn’t bridge the two stories, then there is no point in making the second film.

Guillermo Del Toro: The whole point is to bridge them. The whole point is to create that joining, but I think that it’s also expanding and illuminating some of the aspects of the trilogy in a slightly different way, like same characters in a different environment. I find that very attractive that you can see the characters before they know their destiny, you know? I love that idea which is something very attractive.

[Frelga]

The Hobbit II: Before They Were Famous?

Or is it LOTR 0?

[Primula Baggins]

Well, what GdT said would apply to, say, the tale of Aragorn and Arwen, or the story of how Frodo came to be adopted by Bilbo—both of which I hope will be included. Or Saruman, before he fell. I don't think it necessarily means they're intending to make stuff up out of whole cloth.

[Alatar]

Admittedly, I haven't seen any movies by Del Toro, so I am reserving judgment. Going strictly by his comments, I am not convinced that he "gets it". He talks about Beorns, and spiders, and dragons, but what about Bilbo? I am not sure that chubby little guys with hairy feet interest him that much.

This might cheer you up Frelga:

War either creates an affirmation of ethics and morality or destroys them. It has that effect, there's nothing in between. For example in Pan's Labyrinth the girl becomes so absolutely certain of her internal reality that she does not mind her physical death. She conquers death by absolutely just saying, "I'm in a throne room with my family, I'm happy." It's a conquest, but she dies. In my mind that's not a failure.

In Bilbo's case, the easiest thing for him to do would be to stay loyal to the dwarves and, frankly, to take a different stance on Smaug. Who knows what the easier choices were - many of them - but he takes the hardest choice.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Here's an interesting quote of de Toro's from an article yesterday in the TimesOnline:

Of his Hobbit project, he says: “I’m trying to be faithful to what I read when I was young. That’s The Hobbit I’m serving. I cannot serve a Peter Jackson film. We also hope to bridge the trilogy. We will create an expansion of what lies in the four books and in a number of appendices. I’m not going to New Zealand for two years to do one movie. I’m going there for four years.”

Guillermo Del Toro shifts from Hellboy to Hobbit

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is from a messageboard post fromt the webmaster of DeToroFilms.com, who apparently just returned from vacation:

Most importantly - I traded a few emails with G over vacation. He is in New Zealand at the moment and working 24/7. He says he misses you all and says to expect "MASSIVE" (direct quote) announcements regarding the HOBBIT in a few weeks, so stay tuned.

http://www.deltorofilms.com/forum2/view ... 434#p27434

[Elentári]

Well spotted, V - looks like we may find out who will be Bilbo, at least, pretty soon!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It was Sunflower at TORN who spotted the quote, and posted it there, to give credit where credit is due.

It would be nice to have some real news, wouldn't it?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Regarding Hellboy creator Mike Mignola's contribution to the design of The Hobbit films, del Toro had this to say today at TORN:

For you amusement and speculation I submit, however, that Mike was involved in visualization of some Goblin stuff and varied ideas for the Dwarves. We are still in process and the ideas that I asked him to "run with" may change in time but his DNA is now fused with the rest of the gang (John Howe and him got along famously) and is part of the natural change of flavour that will occur between the LOTR and THE HOBBIT.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Here's an interview with GdT done by Quickbeam of TORN. Interesting, though he doesn't reveal much detail:

TheOneRing.Net Podcast: Guillermo Del Toro on The Hobbit

[Primula Baggins]

A couple of small but interesting Hobbit/GdT nuggets at AICN (link—can be NSFW).

It relates to Dick Smith, an 86-year-old legend in the field of makeup effects, who aged Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man, Marlon Brando in The Godfather, and (winning an Oscar) F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus:

The dude has inspired (and trained) generation upon generation of make-up artists, including Weta’s Richard Taylor, Rick Baker, Spectral Motion’s Mike Elizalde, gentle giant Gino Acevedo and even Guillermo del Toro, who graduated from his Advanced Professional Make-Up Course.

...

Not only did Smith train many of the Weta people and Guillermo himself, I’m told by [Smith's son] David that his dad has officially been invited, at age 86, to be a make-up consultant on THE HOBBIT.

I know from many of my friends at Weta that he’s been down there before as a guest and he garnered respect and love from every single person he interacted with down there. Sounds like a match made in heaven.

I had no idea GdT had actually studied special effects makeup at that level himself. But this makes it even more clear that GdT's preference for practical effects and makeup over CGI will be an influence on The Hobbit.