There’s absolutely no reason for the middle earth dwellers to be anxious about Guillermo del Toro, afterall he worked to create Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth.
The Oscar Award-nominated writer-director is supposedly in talks to tiller back-to-back epics tailored from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which, after an assortment of setbacks, are at last going ahead with Peter Jackson positioned to produce for New Line Cinema and MGM.
Apparently, New Line had no reported statement on the alleged talks, but del Toro’s name has been included on a short list of directors who could do the spectacular material justice ever since the studios declared Jackson hopped back on the board.
“I’ve heard some rumblings, but nothing official,” del Toro told the reported when asked if he was rooted to do the job.
“I don’t want to think about it because it’s such an eventuality. It’s the only Tolkien book I read…I read it and I loved it. So it would be a privilege.”
The Lord of the Rings prequel’s destiny lingered in uncertainty for several years while Jackson, who smashed ticket sales success with his Oscar-winning trilogy, jumbled with New Line over royalties.
Fortunately for Bilbo Baggins enthusiasts, the two sides developed an agreement and up last month and are ready to carry on with campaign for two Hobbit projects, which they’re forecasting to start production simultaneously with a budget anticipated at $150 million per film.
Peter Jackson, who has been full of activity since adapting the bestselling novel The Lovely Bones for the big screen and has accepted on to divide up production tasks with Steven Spielberg on a series of Tintin films. Unfortunately, Jackson had to let go of the Hobbit project.
The primary camera work is uncertainly planned to start next year with an eye on individual release dates in 2010 and 2011, but no screenwriters have been appointed yet, due to the enduring Writers Guild of America pickets.
Tolkien aficionados, at least, have been mainly optimistic about the thought of del Toro managing their adored dwarves and elves, even though a number of fans are worried that he might transmit a certain gloominess over the production.
“Well, all I can say is I certainly can think of directors that I would not want to see touch TH with a 10-foot pole, and del Toro is NOT one of them,” according to one fan, on LOTR site.
“I do agree with some others here that I fear he alone might make a very dark and disturbing version, but with P.J. on board and New Line basically really needing this film to work, I think it might be pulled off.”
“I have hoped that P.J. and del Toro would be working together, it was only a pipe dream,” mused another LOTR enthusiast.
“And it will either be phenomenal or a bust. I am hoping for the first.”
Prior to getting an international attention from a horror-tinged fantasy flick about a young girl seeking respite from her tyrannical stepfather in 1930s-era Spain called Pan’s Labyrinth, del Toro was in charge for the sci-fi thriller Mimic, the vampire-action sequel Blade II and the movie hit version of the comic character Hellboy.
