Del Toro to direct Hobbit Movies...

[El Spurioso]

"According to studio New Line, the first will be an adaptation of The Hobbit, the novel Tolkien published before his Lord of the Rings cycle.

The second will be an original story focusing on the 60 years between the book and the beginning of the Rings trilogy."

Uh-oh...  Brace-brace-brace for the waves of Fanger.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7366375.stm" target="_blank">Del Toro to direct Hobbit Movies...

[ThryllSeekyr]

He has even looks alot like Peter Jackson with the beginnings of beard.

It's a sign.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44599000/jpg/_44599171_deltoro1_body2ap.jpg">

[Dunk!]

The second will be an original story focusing on the 60 years between the book and the beginning of the Rings trilogy

Didn't Bilbo just sit on his arse in Hobbiton for the intervening years, getting a regular hit of 'Da ring' and generally just slobbing out?

Wow, can't wait.

When i was 14 i wrote a sequel to LOTR - it rocked.

[TordelBack]

Didn't Bilbo just sit on his arse in Hobbiton for the intervening years

Well yeah, but all sorts of cool stuff happened to Gandalf and the dwarves which never really gets detailed in the book - including the dungeons of Dol Guldur and the White Council moving against the Necromancer!  

[Keef Monkey]

Nice one, heard this a while back but think it was still at the rumour stage back then. I think if anyone can do this well it'll be him, although I think people who've seen the LOTR movies and go to a new "sequel" expecting biggerbetterfastermore might find the story a bit slight. Still, Del Toro's the man, I've often thought he was the only director capable of directing a Harry Potter movie that I might sit through, he really is that good.

[Mardroid]

I don't know much about Del Toro, but I liked Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy was ok.

I think he can do the films justice.

[El Spurioso]

These responses are very interesting...

I'm a big fan of Del Toro myself, but I was expecting much more of an outcry about the "original story based on the 60 intervening years" bit.  

I would've thought that'd have the JRRT fans gnashing and wailing?  Unless (showing my ignorance here) Tolkien included some sort of coherent story to cover those intervening years in all his various other scribblings?

[Jim_Campbell]

"I would've thought that'd have the JRRT fans gnashing and wailing?"

I don't think there are any die-hard Tolkienistas on this particular board ... plus, I understand (never having waded through them myself) that there is a fair amount of appendix-type material relating the period in question.

Tordel, in particular, has pointed to the White Council's preliminary skirmish with Sauron in his guise as "The Necromancer" as an example of this.

In fact, there is the opportunity here to actually expand upon and inform some aspects of LotR that were, pretty much of necessity, left sketchy.

Or, obviously, it could be shite.

Cheers!

Jim

[JOE SOAP]

There is actually more potential to fashion a dramatic story more suited to being a film since they can structure the story elements however they wish without having to adhere to the drama of a written story but just to the chronology historical events.

I actually thought they would have just split the story of the Hobbit into 2 films adding the extra material into both films while Bilbo's journey is happening. Surely they can't call the second film "The Hobbit pt. 2" after Smaug is defeated in the first film.

[TordelBack]

While ostensibly a simple story, many of the events of The Hobbit are linked to the larger 'political' world it's set it.  The presence of the Spiders in Mirkwood, the goblin/dwarf situation that leads into the Battle of the Five Armies, Gandalf's motives, the decision of the Ring to be 'found'... There's also interesting stuff from teh same period like Aragorn's role as an anonymous hero in Gondor and Rohan.  These are all rooted in the return of the Shadow (can you say 'retcon'? :>), and thus the stuff that happens later with Dol Guldur and Sauron.  

Using all this stuff you could certainly set the plot of  The Hobbit within a larger story, and I'd love to see it done by del Toro.

[JOE SOAP]

If they set the extra events within the journey of Bilbo going to slay Smaug it really would work between the 2 films but to play out the Hobbit story in the first film then do a fill in the blanks film for the second one seems like a worse idea ad that seems to be the way they are going.

[Keef Monkey]

Yeah, not a diehard fan at all myself. Have read The Hobbit a couple of times and think it's pretty good, but find LOTR a very tough read. It's a great story but I've never though of Tolkien as a very good storyteller (I'm glad there's not hardcore fans on here or I'd probably get burned in big wicker hobbit for saying that). Quite enjoyed the movies though, and any new Del Toro stuff is good news to me.

[Art]

That second film sounds well fan-ficcy. They should get NadiaZ of the old 2000ad newgroup to write it.

[TordelBack]

to play out the Hobbit story in the first film then do a fill in the blanks film for the second one seems like a worse idea

Agreed.  The second half would be a doddle - you could expand the whole sequence with the King of the Elves and the men of the Lake, crank up Smaug and the Battle, and maybe pay the Necromancer a wee visit on the way home.  It's the first half that would be tricky.

[Mardroid]

Didn't the 'necromancer segment' happen while Gandalf was away from the party? You know how he would mysteriously vanish for a bit on their journey?

I might be wrong about that though, my memory is hazy, but if it is, and the films are in chronological order (as the blurb suggests) then it should be set within the time period of the first film.

Of course it is possible to have a second film dealing with parallel events too, which can work if done right.

Regardless, there is quite a lot of information within the appendices that could fit into the second film. Making it cohesive could be tricky though, i.e. rather than just a lot of threads happening simultaneously. I have hopes for it though.

As for the name of the second film, I'm sure Hobbit 2 is just the name they're going with until they come up with another name.  Something like The Rise of the Shadow... actually perhaps not that sounds like  a superhero flick.  (I was thinking Shadow Rising but that doesn't quite go with the syntax of the other book/film titles.)