Posted on 04/24/2008 4:22:33 PM PDT by maquiladora
PAN'S LABYRINTH director Guillermo del Toro has signed on to direct THE HOBBIT and its sequel for New Line-MGM, per VARIETY.
This is a major step forward for the LORD OF THE RINGS prequels, which had been held up in litigation for several years.
The announcement came Thursday from executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, New Line president Toby Emmerich and Mary Parent, chief of MGM's Worldwide Motion Picture Group.
Del Toro will move to New Zealand for four years to work with Jackson and his Wingnut and WETA production teams, directing the two films back to back. The sequel deals with the 60 year time period between THE HOBBIT and THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING and will draw from source material and footnotes.
New Line is overseeing development and will manage production. Both films will be co-produced and co-financed by New Line Cinema and MGM. Warner Bros. will distribute domestically and MGM will distribute internationally.
PAN'S LABYRINTH, nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Screenplay (Del Toro), is the highest grossing Spanish-language film release in U.S. box office history. It was released through New Line's Picturehouse.
Uhhh ... what sequel? Bilbo returning home and living quietly for 60 years? That's how I remember the story.
two and a half hours of baking and eating. numm numm
Yeah, one of my favorite films of the last several years. I’m also looking forward to HellBoy II this summer.
I suspect they will create a new story about the Hobbits, including his nephew, Frodo, and perhaps about the battles in which young Aragorn and Theoden, King of Rohan, faced together.
And tossing down many a mug of “old Wineyard” wine (1296 vintage, a very good year). ;-)
Ugghh... I hope he doesn’t insert some kind of ‘subtle’ message like he did with Pan.
I’m afraid you’re right. They’re playing with fire if they do that. The story says the project has been tied up in litigation. Is taking liberties with the canon the reason?
One Ping to rule them all. One Ping only, please.
Hey, check out PJ! He’s lost a whole lot of weight.
Shame about the hair, still.
See, I found “Pan’s Labyrinth” impenetrable. And I was paying attention and everything. It was visually impressive, but the story left me cold.
I was intrigued when I clicked this thread - I thought it’d be Benicio Del Toro, and frankly I would LOVE to see what he makes of “The Hobbit.”
I didn’t even notice until you mentioned it! He really is taking it off.
There’s lots of material to use, more than just “There and Back Again”. Sounds like they’re going to tell some of the other stories and legends.
It could get out of hand. But I’ll be happy if they just get TABA right... the rest, mostly in the sequel I hope, is just sauce.
Or... they tell the other stories in flashback, interwoven through the basic TABA story, so we don’t meet Smaug until the second movie. Dang... I’ll bet that’s what they do.
Keep in mind too that there was a major event in that intervening 60 years: The Necromancer was driven out of Dol Guldur by the White Council, whereupon he revealed himself to be Sauron and reclaimed Barad Dur. There’s enough material there to make for an exciting movie all by itself.
"The greatest trick the Hobbit ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist."
“Pan’s Labyrinth” was an anti-Catholic, pro-communist piece of dreck. With the built-in audience, this doesn’t bode well for Tolkien.
I am with you. Pan’s Labyrinth was unwatchable. And when the Falangist literally smashed the herder’s face in I thought it was a spliced in scene from Hostel II - either that or del Toro was channeling Eli Roth.
Post of the day!
What I’ve heard is they think there’s a lot of history between the “A” story of the Hobbit, and the beginning of Fellowship, and there is. Much of it is just alluded to in the books, or buried in the Appendices...
Not sure how they’ll weave it in, but there’s meetings of the White Council and the throwing the Necromancer out of Mirkwood, there’s Gandalf and Aragorn searching all over the place for Gollum, and finding that he had already been to Mordor and spilled his guts.
I don’t know how they’ll weave it into the story... Lots of “meanwhile” cuts, probably ;~)
I’m not familiar with Del Toro, or Pan’s Labrinth, but the LOTR fans from theonering.net have been pretty excited about this.
No, it's been over who owns the story rights, and whether New Line was going to pay PJ what he thought he was owed for the last project.
I take your point, but it's risky. There are fragments of Middle Earth history of the period referenced in the published canon -- Gollum's wanderings; Aragorn tracking Gollum; the White Council driving Sauron from Dol Guldur; Aragorn's romance with Arwen; the dwarves' war with the orcs -- but nothing developed as a story by Tolkein.
Pretty risky territory. Strikes me as similar to that Gone With The Wind sequel a few years back.
 Ring Ping!! |
I guess it depends on what someone considers entertaining. Pan’s Labyrinth was well crafted and integrated the fantasy well. It had a very stylish look (dark, depressing and with a muted color pallete), the look fit. It’s the ham handed propaganda and ugly story line that got to me. Hopefully he will brighten up his style and won’t fiddle with Tolkien too much.
I recall there was talk of splitting the novel into two films -- maybe that's what the writer means.
Good thing Peter lost all that weight or you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. Until one of them spoke, that is.
Pan’s Labyrinth was great. I had no interest in seeing more Hobbits but this changes things.
New Line was incredibly stupid in trying to kill their golden goose by not giving it to PJ in the first place. How many multi-billion-dollar blockbusters, rated as among the best movies ever made, had Sam Rami done?
It's amazing how hard it is to convince studio execs to do a no-brainer.
The “Necromancer” was driven out of Myrkwood and found to be Sauron reborn. Gollum was tracked down, interrogated and escaped from both the Enemy and Galdalf and Aragorn. The Nine rode forth once more from Mordor and Osgiliath was overrun.
Apparently, the entire story will be broken up into two movies, like part 1 and part 2. I’m not sure how I feel about this, because on one hand it is only one book and it would be nice to see it all at once, but on the other hand I don’t think the whole book can be properly done in less than three hours or so. The LOTR books are longer, but they contain more descriptions and slow, boring sections (like Frodo and Sam going into Mordor) that could be considerably shortened in movie form, and Peter Jackson couldn’t even fit all of the books into one movie each.
Stuff that happens in those “60 years” for the second movie:
2941 Bilbo goes on his adventure and finds the one ring
—————————————60 years-——————————
2941 Expulsion of the Necromancer(Sauron)from Dol Guldur by the White Council.
2942 Return of Sauron to Mordor.
2951 Rebuilding of Barad-dûr begins.
2951 The Nazgûl are sent to reclaim Dol Guldur.
2951 Aragorn is told who he really is by Elrond
2953 The last meeting of the White Council.
2956 Aragorn meets Gandalf and starts protecting shire
2957-2980 - Aragorn using the name of “Thorongil” serves in the armies of King Thengel of Rohan (Theodins father), and Steward Ecthelion II of Gondor (Denethors father)
2968 Birth of Frodo Baggins in the Shire.
2978 Birth of Boromir of Gondor.
2980 Frodos parents die in a boating accident.
2982 Birth of Meriadoc Brandybuck
2983 Birth of Faramir of Gondor
2983 Birth of Samwise Gamgee.
2989 Bilbo adopts Frodo
2989 Balin attempt to retake Moria.
2990 Birth of Peregrin Took.
2994 Balin is killed in Moria
2995 Birth of Éowyn in Rohan.
—————————————60 years———————————
3001 Bilbo Baggins’ Birthday Party and farewell feast.
Stuff technically outside the 60 years but missed in LOTR movies:
3007 Aragorn mother passes away
3014 Saruman begins to weaken Théoden
3017 Gollum is released from Mordor; Aragorn finally tracks him down in the Dead Marshes, and brings him as a captive to King Thranduil’s halls in Mirkwood (Legolos’s father)
Hey! Watch it! There's Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, ...
Mark
Other events outside the technical 60 years that could be in second movie:
Gandalf tricking Théoden into giving him his horse shadowfax.
The dark riders asking Dain and the dwarves of the lonely mountain about Bilbo/Hobbiton location.
The attack on Mirkwood by Sauron.
It will be interesting to see del Toro’s ‘take’ on it. It will be lush, if nothing else!
Gandalf meeting Thorin in the Prancing Pony, which set the whole thing into motion...
“A chance meeting, as they say in Middle Earth.”
I don't usually go for the made for cable stuff, but there was a miniseries last year, The Lost Room, that was very well crafted. It can be done right...but it's usually not.
I’m having nightmares about giant spiders already...
I’m interested in how they show the transformation of Saruman from hero and the White Wizard head of the White Council into Sauron’s dupe. Will it be a sudden surprise, or more subtle. Of course Gandalf doesn’t know until the hobbits leave the Shire.
Well--during those years the story of Aragorn would be interesting--he would be a child in Rivendell and a young man about Middle Earth. Also, Sauron was coming to power and Gollum imprisoned and searchiing for the lost ring.
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