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The Hobbit (movie)

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Blue Velvet

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Jul 4, 2004
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Guillermo del Toro has officially signed up to direct The Hobbit, according to reports leaking out from a film premiere in France. The Pan's Labyrinth creator will oversee a double-bill of films based on JRR Tolkien's fantasy adventure, which paved the way for The Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson, director of the Oscar-winning Rings trilogy, will serve as executive producer.

The announcement was made at last night's French premiere of The Orphanage, a Spanish horror film that Del Toro helped produce. Introducing the film-maker, the host told the audience: "Today is a big day because we are announcing what everyone wanted to hear, which is that he will be directing The Hobbit." Del Toro had previously been reported to be in negotiations to take charge of the project.

The Hobbit films will be backed by New Line with a reported budget of $150m (£78m). Production begins next year, with the pictures following in 2010 and 2011.
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http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2250245,00.html


As much I would have loved to see Peter Jackson direct these, he's on board as Executive Producer as he's involved with The Lovely Bones and Tintin, but allegedly has 'approval over creative elements of the pair of films.' I'm not sure if Fran Walsh will be involved with the script...

I've never seen Pan's Labyrinth; some people seemed to love it, some didn't at all. Hope they're going to shoot this in New Zealand but wonder if the book can stretch to two films; it's a long time since I've read it. Also wonder whether they're going to consciously copy the tone of the LOTR films, or aim at a younger audience.

So, yeah. Hobbits and one almighty ginormous and pissed-off dragon. :D
 
Yay! I'm excited about this. Pan's Labyrinth was good, though not great, in my opinion. I thought the cinematography was lovely, but that the story itself was a bit lacking. But it didn't feel to me to be the result of poor direction. With a great story like the Hobbit, I foresee good things for this movie! :)
 
I hope they cast some of the same actors they used in LOTR (Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Andy Serkis as Gollum etc.).

They're planning to split The Hobbit into two movies? :eek: I didn't think the story was anywhere that long... On the other hand, maybe it's because people didn't like sitting for 3+ hours straight :D.
 
Oh wow. Guillermo del Toro directing The Hobbit.

It's like an amazing dream.

I think this is going to be absolutely brilliant!
 
LinuXtreme said:
I hope they cast some of the same actors they used in LOTR (Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Andy Serkis as Gollum etc.).

They're planning to split The Hobbit into two movies? :eek: I didn't think the story was anywhere that long... On the other hand, maybe it's because people didn't like sitting for 3+ hours straight :D.
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no, they are making the hobbit, then making another movie that spans the time period between the hobit and lord of the rings, which I don't recall there ever being any stories for, unless its buried in the unfinished tales book that was published.

Funny thing is, I just reread the hobbit the other day, and I'm not sure how I feel about this movie. There are inconsistencies in between it and LOTR, and totally different tones (the hobbit is decidedly a children's book, whereas lotr is decidedly not). not sure how its going to work, but we'll see.

I think using the guy who did pan's labarynth is a great move though. I loved that movie. I disagree with themadchemist about the weakness of that movies story, but to each their own. But i agree the cinematography and directing was great. And if it means Peter jackson won't do be doing any absurd slow motion shots, all the better. He did a good job on lotr, but I think he made a few mistakes in it as well.
 
themadchemist said:
Yay! I'm excited about this. Pan's Labyrinth was good, though not great, in my opinion. I thought the cinematography was lovely, but that the story itself was a bit lacking. But it didn't feel to me to be the result of poor direction. With a great story like the Hobbit, I foresee good things for this movie! :)
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I feel the same way. The direction was just fine even if the writing was disappointing.
 
I dont know, we will see, its a strange combo.

I have to say Guillermo del Toro's movies are more smooth, dark, the stories are more interesting to me.

I dislike hobbit. Jackson's LoTR trilogy are somewhat disappointing to me. Maybe this type of movies are just hard to balance between imagination and realistic.
 
strider42 said:
Funny thing is, I just reread the hobbit the other day, and I'm not sure how I feel about this movie. There are inconsistencies in between it and LOTR, and totally different tones (the hobbit is decidedly a children's book, whereas lotr is decidedly not). not sure how its going to work, but we'll see.
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actually both were geared toward children. hobbit (age 6-12), and Lord of the Rings (12-16). since neither of those age-groups are 18+, they both are children's stories.

also, hobbit is not a storyline for Del Toro, he likes darker stories. come to think of it, i don't remember the last non-R rated movie he's done; Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto Del Fauno), Blade 2: Bloodhunter, Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army.... all of them were rated R, whereas the Hobbit was written for younger children. I'm a big Del Toro fan, but I think Jackson should do The Hobbit, to keep the style consistant with The Lord of the Rings. both are great directors, but don't change the style mid-way through.
 
phoxrenvatio said:
actually both were geared toward children. hobbit (age 6-12), and Lord of the Rings (12-16). since neither of those age-groups are 18+, they both are children's stories.

also, hobbit is not a storyline for Del Toro, he likes darker stories. come to think of it, i don't remember the last non-R rated movie he's done; Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto Del Fauno), Blade 2: Bloodhunter, Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army.... all of them were rated R, whereas the Hobbit was written for younger children. I'm a big Del Toro fan, but I think Jackson should do The Hobbit, to keep the style consistant with The Lord of the Rings. both are great directors, but don't change the style mid-way through.
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I've never read anything where tolkien said lotr was geared towards kids 12-16. Doesn't mean its not true though, but its more sophisticated writing than that I think. If you have a source, I'd be interested to read it. On the other hand, the hobbit I know was written pretty much for his young children, Tolkien said so himself.

The hobbit has some pretty dark parts that may translate really well when you take the "kidness" out of the story. There is plenty of dark action (the dragon obviously, the spiders, the wood elves, the battle of five armies, the trolls, though I think those are likely to be cut out of the movie). If they just go and make a kiddie movie, where these instances aren't treated as darkly as they can be, its going to suck.
 
strider42 said:
I've never read anything where tolkien said lotr was geared towards kids 12-16. Doesn't mean its not true though, but its more sophisticated writing than that I think. If you have a source, I'd be interested to read it. On the other hand, the hobbit I know was written pretty much for his young children, Tolkien said so himself.
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How many people read LoTR when they were a nerdy youngster, vs. a nerdy adult? LoTR was the thing to read in grade 8 and 9 when I was in school.

I think del Toro will do an excellent job. I think people are typecasting him too dark, I think he'll be able to adapt his direction with the help of Jackson. I don't much care for Tolkien and I wasn't a big fan of the LoTR movies -- aside from acknowledging they were indeed very well done on all fronts -- but from a 'cinematic skill' point of view I think this is a very solid direction for the film to be moving in.
 
After going to IMDB and seeing some of the movies he has made, I see that don't like Guillermo del Toro's movies. :eek: Why are people here such fans of his? He made Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, Blade II, and Mimic. ZOMG....Mimic!!

I hope he doesn't mess this up.
 
eeehh... I really did not like Pan's Labyrinth and am cringing at the thought of the same director doing The Hobbit. Peter Jackson really should be finishing the series off, he's set the tone already and del Toro won't be able to match it (clearly, because he's not Peter Jackson!!:p)
 
Never read The Hobbit. We (my father and I) did have a nice book with wonderful illustrations but we were not really into the story and so sold it. At times I wish we hadn't sold it. I might/might not have read it but it was a very nice book.

I liked Pan's Labyrinth a lot.
 
Wow, his resume is rather poor. Hellboy was just terrible. I am consoled by the fact that it did at least look nice...
 
I think we are bound to be disappointed. The LOTR trilogy lent itself to an epical movie; The Hobbit (as I recall it from many, many years ago), does not. I also don't remember it as being terribly good reading. As for the director, it's difficult to fathom the choice which has been made, but it's worth keeping in mind that Peter Jackson has made really only one good film in his career, so I'm not sure he'd be any better at translating this story. And what's this I hear about an "in between" story? Tolkien didn't write one of those, did he?
 
The nice thing about the Hobbit is that it has a really excellent climax and some very potent fairy-tale devices and artifacts. Besides the one ring, we get introduced to Sting, which is very cool, plays a larger role than it did in LOTR, and is also attached to the backstory of the elves. Then there is Smaug's one missing scale, and the man who makes a statement for his race (which is otherwise portrayed as cowardly and petty) by sharpshooting it. And we might finally get some worthwhile development for the dwarves. Gimli was just comic relief in the movies (I don't recall the books well enough to say if he was so poorly served there), but here they're selfish and as blind as everyone else.

With all of the fantastic settings in the book, and how many of them set up the forces of good and evil in the LOTR trilogy, I can see a movie adaptation working very well. I even recall the animated movie with songs quite fondly—if anything, that version shows that there is a lot of material in this relatively small book to capitalize on. And IMO its structure lends itself well to a single feature film.

Not sure about the connecting movie. Presumably all of the material will be harvested from ancillary texts written by Tolkien... appendices etc. I personally don't think it's needed (the connections are almost more desirable to infer), but you never know.
 
This is a great move by PJ. He knows he'll never be able to top himself, so he passes the buck to someone else. If del Toro succeeds, PJ is an execute producer and will happily take some of the credit as some sort of creative advisor to del Toro.

If the movie turns out to be ass, del Toro can take all the criticism.
 
Ooh, good choice for director.

Pan's Labrinyth is brilliant and is visually beautiful.

The only draw back is PJ said it could never be filmed in a way to complement the story. He reckoned it's 3 films worth on it's own.
 
bartelby said:
He reckoned it's 3 films worth on it's own.
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It's going to be two films apparently, and given the length of many blockbusters these days plus director's cuts, I'm sure the adaptation will be well suited.

It's a long time since I read the book; I'm not sure where a natural break between the two films would be placed in the narrative.

I also think they'll beef it up a bit in tone so that it fits in with the LOTR trilogy; I'm sure it won't be solely aimed at children. Well, not young ones, anyway. ;)
 
Blue Velvet said:
It's going to be two films apparently, and given the length of many blockbusters these days plus director's cuts, I'm sure the adaptation will be well suited.

It's a long time since I read the book; I'm not sure where a natural break between the two films would be placed in the narrative.
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2 films?
Excellent.

How about when the dwarves get imprisioned by the elves?
 
The Hobbit

My first exposure to Tolkien was having The Hobbit read aloud by my class teacher when I was about seven or eight years old. That man could put pictures into Tolkien's words. I became a Tolkienaught from that point on.

Perhaps they may use some of the works contained in the Silmarillion, this was the history of the First Age. Tolkien also had other works in the small book style, like Farmer Giles of Ham, The Tree and the Leaf, and Smith of Wooton Major among many others. Tolkien has left works that could be made into another hundred movies.

One of my treasured books is his Father Christmas Letters. Printed and illustrated in his own hand, complete with the North Pole postage stamps. They were letters to his children to explain the gifts or lack of gifts during the difficult years of the 1920's.

But I reminisce and draw this tread way off topic.

Kevin
 
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