We have some of Guillermo Del Toro’s thoughts on the Hobbit’s casting, creatures and story today thanks to the fabled caves of Yahoo:
First of all, expect some crazy new creatures. If you’ve seen Hellboy or his epic Pan’s Labyrinth, you know del Toro would go beyond Orcs and talking trees. He promises to respect J.R.R. Tolkien’s and Peter Jackson’s creations, but sees many more new ones. “I plan to bring myself to The Hobbit,” he said. “No doubt about that.”
And even though The Hobbit was Tolkien’s tot-sized adventure, the film version will not be The Lord of the Rings for Kids. “Tolkien had, in the last third of the book—I wouldn’t say an edge, but had a somber tone that normally would not conjure the term ‘family.'”
“We’ll cast whoever seems to fit the pages,” del Toro said. Wannabe Hobbits may have to chase him down to New Zealand, though, where he’ll be spending much of the rest of the year, checking in with the creature designs and the Middle Earth set.
I am quite excited to see the monsters that Guillermo will make for The Hobbit. I am most excited about Smaug the dragon and cannot wait to see the battle against him. Killing a dragon is a goal that I achieved once in D&D, (The Ruins Of Undermountain) but have yet to accomplish in real life. Del Toro’s makeup/monster team is among the best I have ever seen, and I look forward to their creations. The man in suit is cinematic power!
I am pleased that Gillermo isn’t going to cater this film to children any more than the other Lord Of The Rings films. The Hobbit was intended to be a children’ s book but I think it’s wise to avoid making it overly “kid friendly”. Sombre suits me just fine.
I am on board with what Mr. Del Toro has said above and could not be more excited to see what he has in store for us. This should be a treat indeed!
I’m intrigued about how Del Toro will go about making the second Hobbit film or the sequel. Will he use source material from The Silmarillion? The Appendices from the Lord of the Rings? I wonder.
I’m with Mike. I hope Del Toro continues to remember that this is ultimately Tolkien’s work throughout filming and production. It’s easy to let ego get in the way and insert yourself into a project like this. I still wish Jackson was directing but I think that Del Toro will bring some interesting ideas and a different fantasy style to the films.
I agree with many of you who have expressed concerns about the possibility of Del Toro making The Hobbit all Pan’s Labyrinth-ish. It’s not that I don’t dig the man’s style–Hellboy and the rest of his projects have been awesome–I just hope he attempts to maintain a strong sense of continuity between the LOTR films and this prequel. Essentially: Don’t pull a Lucas!
Also, with all due respect to Gavin, Tom Bombadil does NOT need to make an appearance. Jackson was wise not to include the character in The Fellowship of the Ring (though his songs are awesome).
I just equipped my “Helm of Anticipation +3”.
I had an elven paladin in D&D that slayed Tiamat. It was very epic :)
Can’t wait to see what Del Toro brings to the Hobbit. I’m actually pleased to hear it won’t exactly be kid friendly.
I remember on a podcast sometime last year John was mentioning that he couldn’t wait for Sam Raimi to get on board with “The Hobbit”, while the whole time I was thinking “Please choose del Toro. Raimi is a hack…”
And while we have enough evidence that Peter Jackson is a genius, here he goes putting the right man for the job into the directorial position of “The Hobbit”.
This is great news. I would not like to see somebody trying to rip of Jackson’s style (although I know WETA had a lot to do with it, and they’ll play a major part in the production here, as well). But like Mike posted earlier, as long as del Toro doesn’t go high-and-to-the-right with it, I think “The Hobbit” and its sequel will be great additions to the “Lord Of the Rings” trilogy.
This has me worried. I REALLY hoppe he doesn’t deviate TOO much from the source material in this area. Tolkine wrote in good adversaries for the story. Del Toro doesn’t need to go making up weird stuff to fill it out.
Given that they’re going to include extra material – not just the hobbit story, I’d love to see barrow-wights and Tom Bombadil….
@mike although i see where your fear stems from, i do remember him mentioning that he will stay true to tolkien and peter jacksons vision. (which in my mind means no wacky random stuff that just pops into his head) Hopefully he will slightly change the appearances of things that we have already seen and fell in love with, like ogres, orcs and some of the terrain as they will be traveling to a different part of middle earth. Seeing the same design of the monsters as in the first three movies will just make it dull and stale, hopefully he can make it so that everything is fresh and new but yet familiar
This is TERRIBLE news. We don’t need this film to be “Bilbo visits Pan’s Labyrinth with Hellboy.”
I love the artistic style played up in his ‘fantasy’ films, but I will be very disappointed to see monsters that do no fit in with the classic fantasy feel laid down in the original novels, or the recent film trilogy.
Giant spiders, trolls, goblins, elves, humans, giant birds, a dragon…thats great. A dude with 90 ideas all over his face…not in the Hobbit thanks.
Correction
This is great news, I just wonder how he is going to approach “The Battle of Five Armies”.
This is great news, I just wonder how he is going approach “The Battle of Five Armies”.