Nacho's Whoring Amazon Wishlist of Death
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Guillermo del Toro to direct 'Hobbit'Filmmaker signs on helm feature and sequelIn a major step forward on “The Hobbit,” Guillermo del Toro has signed on to direct the New Line-MGM tentpole and its sequel.The widely expected announcement -- which had been rumored for several weeks -- came Thursday afternoon jointly from exec producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, New Line president Toby Emmerich, and Mary Parent, newly named chief of MGM’s Worldwide Motion Picture Group.Del Toro’s moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work with Jackson and his Wingnut and Weta production teams. He’ll direct the two films back to back, with the sequel dealing with the 60-year period between “The Hobbit” and “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.New Line is overseeing development and will manage production. Both pics are being co-produced and co-financed by New Line Cinema and MGM, with Warner Bros. distributing domestically and MGM handling international.Del Toro won’t leave for New Zealand immediately as he’s still in post-production on U’s “Hellboy 2,” due out in July. His previous pic, “Pan’s Labyrinth,” was released through New Line’s Picturehouse and set a record as the highest grossing Spanish language film in U.S. box office history. The official signing of Del Toro comes four months after New Line settled a lawsuit with Jackson over “The Lord of the Rings” and announced that it had agreed with MGM to turn J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Hobbit” into two live-action films. Sam Raimi had been preceived as the initial front-runner as director but Del Toro had emerged in recent months as the likely candidate. The studios didn’t give a start date on production and don’t yet have a script. Though no screenplay deal’s been set, it’s expected that the “LOTR” scripting team of Jackson, Walsh and Philippa Boyens will collaborate with Del Toro.With Del Toro blocking out four years for the project, it’s likely that the studios are aiming at starting shooting next year and releasing the films in late 2011 and 2012.Jackson’s WETA stages, post-production and visual effects facilities -- built for “The Lord of the Rings” -- will be used for both films. And New Zealand will again be the site of Middle-earth, with the story centering on Bilbo Baggins taking the Ring of Power from Gollum.
So Hobbit news has been hot and heavy for a while now, but I've been ignoring it.What I can't ignore, though, is the fan film that's been getting tons of press. It's out and I can't watch it at work, but will get it in me tonight:http://www.dailymotion.com/huntforgollumhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_for_Gollumhttp://thehuntforgollum.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html
Tobey Maguire's name is being bandied about this morning as "in talks" to play Bilbo Baggins.
The creative team for “The Hobbit,” the long-awaited live-action film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s novel about the diminutive fantasy hero Bilbo Baggins, has shrunk. Over the weekend the filmmaker Guillermo del Toro said he was departing the project as its director, amid uncertainty about a start date for shooting and the future of the studio releasing it.In a statement posted Sunday on the Tolkien fan Web site TheOneRing.net, Mr. del Toro, whose films include “Pan’s Labyrinth” and the “Hellboy” movies, said: “In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming ‘The Hobbit,’ I am faced with the hardest decision of my life. After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures.”The online post said that Mr. del Toro would remain a screenwriter on “The Hobbit,” which is planned to be released in two parts in December 2012 and December 2013, and produced by New Line Cinema and MGM. Last year MGM, which also owns the film rights to the James Bond franchise, put itself up for sale, and is continuing to seek potential buyers for the studio, which carries $3.7 billion in debt.Peter Jackson, the director of the “Lord of the Rings” movies and a writer and executive producer of “The Hobbit” films, said in the online posting that he was sad to see Mr. del Toro step down as director but understood his decision.“The bottom line is that Guillermo just didn’t feel he could commit six years to living in New Zealand, exclusively making these films, when his original commitment was for three years,” Mr. Jackson said.Mr. Jackson said he and his producing team would meet this week with studio executives “to ensure a smooth and uneventful transition, as we secure a new director for ‘The Hobbit,’” adding, “We do not anticipate any delay or disruption to ongoing pre-production work.”
