Legal hurdles cleared for "The Hobbit

[Neroon]

Link to story on Yahoo.

This has been a long struggle to get this story to film, but I'm fully expecting it to be worth it.

 

[Klaus]

 

[sojourner]

<worries about freaky director doing freaky/creepy things to the story/visuals.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I can easily see myself enjoying The Hobbit as done by Del Toro. I just wonder when he'll get around to them.

 

[FordSVT]

<worries about freaky director doing freaky/creepy things to the story/visuals.

I honestly don't believe that PJ would allow Del Toro to go overboard with his particular brand of wierdness. It's his film, his baby, not Del Toro's. The LotR is classic high fantasy and should look as such, and I think the only reason PJ isn't directing himself is because he's tired and doesn't want that level of involvement (pro/writer/director) for that many years of his life again. I believe that the Hobbit will tie in visually with the trilogy but marked with Del Toro's camera work.

 

[Neroon]

<worries about freaky director doing freaky/creepy things to the story/visuals.

I honestly don't believe that PJ would allow Del Toro to go overboard with his particular brand of wierdness. It's his film, his baby, not Del Toro's. The LotR is classic high fantasy and should look as such, and I think the only reason PJ isn't directing himself is because he's tired and doesn't want that level of involvement (pro/writer/director) for that many years of his life again. I believe that the Hobbit will tie in visually with the trilogy but marked with Del Toro's camera work.

Agreed all the way around. PJ knows what's at stake here, and because of that I doubt he'd give the reins to anyone who'd deviate so completely from what PJ himself already established. I believe Howard Shore is still on board to score the film, but I'm not sure about anyone else. Alan Lee and John Howe, for example.

 

[Middle Earther]

Good news. I'm looking forward to Del Toro as director. I think it will turn out to be more of a partnership between Del Toro and Jackson, though.

 

[urbandk]

<worries about freaky director doing freaky/creepy things to the story/visuals.

I honestly don't believe that PJ would allow Del Toro to go overboard with his particular brand of wierdness. It's his film, his baby, not Del Toro's. The LotR is classic high fantasy and should look as such, and I think the only reason PJ isn't directing himself is because he's tired and doesn't want that level of involvement (pro/writer/director) for that many years of his life again. I believe that the Hobbit will tie in visually with the trilogy but marked with Del Toro's camera work.

Agreed all the way around. PJ knows what's at stake here, and because of that I doubt he'd give the reins to anyone who'd deviate so completely from what PJ himself already established. I believe Howard Shore is still on board to score the film, but I'm not sure about anyone else. Alan Lee and John Howe, for example.

I find it funny that people would worry about someone out-weirding Peter Jackson. If anyone has shown how he can do a complete 180 from his past work depending on the material, it was Jackson. I don't think it should be a problem for Del Toro.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I'm starting to wonder if maybe we'd run into some kind of producer-becomes-backseat-director kinda thing, like Steven Spielberg's endless micromanaging on Poltergeist.

 

[Tulin]

I found it amusing when I first read the story "And now they can FINALLY start work on The Hobbit!"

I wonder if all those people planting flowers and making hedgerows up in Mata Mata and the people re-building Sam's hobbit hole(it was bulldozered)breathed a sigh of relief that day, or was it business as usual?


P.S. For those that haven't realized it yet, that's me looking into Bag End in my av.

 

[Timby]

I'm starting to wonder if maybe we'd run into some kind of producer-becomes-backseat-director kinda thing, like Steven Spielberg's endless micromanaging on Poltergeist.

I sincerely doubt that Guillermo del Toro would sign onto a Richard Marquand / Return of the Jedi project.

Although, shit -- if they're still planning to get the first Hobbit installment out by the fall of 2011 (I'm pretty sure the announced timeline was 2011 / 2012), a lot of shit needs to start happening now.

 

[Tulin]

As I wrote above, Hobbiton has been gearing up for a few months now. I am in contact with the official tour organizers who have the rights to visit several LOTR sites and they are keeping a close eye on things.

The prep work to get the Shire back up to scratch is perfectly on schedule for filming next year.

 

[Neroon]

^ That sounds right in line with what I'd been hearing,but it's still good to have reassurance.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I honestly don't believe that PJ would allow Del Toro to go overboard with his particular brand of wierdness. It's his film, his baby, not Del Toro's. The LotR is classic high fantasy and should look as such, and I think the only reason PJ isn't directing himself is because he's tired and doesn't want that level of involvement (pro/writer/director) for that many years of his life again. I believe that the Hobbit will tie in visually with the trilogy but marked with Del Toro's camera work.

Wow, there's so many misconceptions in there I don't know where to begin...

Yes, Lord of the Rings is High Fantasy. The Hobbit is not. The Hobbit is a children's book, first and foremost, that happens to fit into Tolkien's Middle-Earth. We can look at it in retrospect and see that it's a prequel to LotR, but that's not the way Tolkien conceived of the book. It's a fable, not a medieval romance like its massive sequel.

I have a difficult time envisioning Guillermo del Toro signing on to direct a film with a backseat director. Del Toro has said he wants to stay with the visual style of Jackson's films, but I don't see del Toro limiting himself just because he has an idea that Jackson might not have done.

As far as visuals, del Toro has talked with John Howe and Alan Lee. But del Toro has a strong design interest himself, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if Mike Mignola were involved artistically.

Del Toro won't do something that's completely dissimilar to what Peter Jackson did, but it's still going to be his film when all is said and done. There are projects that del Toro is putting on hold to do The Hobbit (and chances are that this has killed Hellboy III, which based on what I've heard would have been amazing). Del Toro doesn't need this; if he didn't have the creative reins, he'd do something else.

 

[Timby]

(and chances are that this has killed Hellboy III, which based on what I've heard would have been amazing).

Every time I'm reminded of this, I die a little more inside.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

You and me both, Timby. You and me both. *sigh*

 

[23skidoo]

I have to admit this story surprised me because I had no idea there WERE any "legal hurdles". I knew JRR's family had their knickers in a knot over the profits from the LOTR trilogy, but I thought things were cleared away for the Hobbit long ago.

The only thing I don't like about this venture is the decision to artificially extend the story into 2 films. It just makes no sense unless they plan to radically change the story. The Hobbit was a children's story, with a relatively simple plotline, characters, etc. (certainly simple when compared to LOTR).

Now, had Jackson decided to make 2 films out of Return of the King, or even do a 6-film series instead of 3, with 2 films per book (he certainly exposed enough film!) I could make sense of that. And it could be argued that the decision to do Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as 2 films was a decision that should have been applied to most of the other Potter novels. But there's no need for The Hobbit to be more than 2 hours long.

Having been blown away by Pan's Labyrinth, and giving Jackson ultimate props for making LOTR work, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. But remember Jackson is also the guy who took the original King Kong -- which was barely an hour in length -- and stretched it to 3 hours, which turned it into a rather boring affair.

Alex