http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7366375.stm

Del Toro confirmed as director with Jackson producing. Good combo methinks.

Neat. I can't wait for the forests of... oh dang what where those forests with the giant spiders?

Good news as far as I'm concerned! Thanks for the post.
:)

ummm not lotr, he's directing the HOBBBIT which is the book that takes place before lotr

it's actually a story he made up for his kids and would tell them before going to bed and was convinced to make it an actual book

cleverlymadeup:
ummm not lotr, he's directing the HOBBBIT which is the book that takes place before lotr

it's actually a story he made up for his kids and would tell them before going to bed and was convinced to make it an actual book

of course its not LoTR but its a generalisation to get people attention

'Makes Sense. Of course, everyone will want to see the Hobbit, regardless of title.

You know, the Hobbit was my favorite book in the entire series, so I'm glad a movie's coming.

Anarchemitis:
Neat. I can't wait for the forests of... oh dang what where those forests with the giant spiders?

Mirkwood. With Del Toro at the helm, that should be pretty scary indeed.

I reckon he's probably the best man they could have chosen. Pan's Labyrinth is one of the best fantasy films to have come out in years. The Hobbit should be very good if he keeps some of the dark style from PL.

As a side note, anyone a little perplexed about this 'Second movie' New Line keeps going on about? Doing an adaption of the Hobbit is all fine and dandy, but the events between The Hobbit and The Fellowship? Scraping the barrel much?

j-e-f-f-e-r-s:

I reckon he's probably the best man they could have chosen. Pan's Labyrinth is one of the best fantasy films to have come out in years.

Indeed, as well as his other 'more serious' films which are also worth a look.

j-e-f-f-e-r-s:

Mirkwood. With Del Toro at the helm, that should be pretty scary indeed.

I reckon he's probably the best man they could have chosen. Pan's Labyrinth is one of the best fantasy films to have come out in years. The Hobbit should be very good if he keeps some of the dark style from PL.

As a side note, anyone a little perplexed about this 'Second movie' New Line keeps going on about? Doing an adaption of the Hobbit is all fine and dandy, but the events between The Hobbit and The Fellowship? Scraping the barrel much?

yeah i was happy to hear Del Torro was going to do it, he's a worthy replacement for Jackson, he'll do it justice and mirkwood will be darn cool, tho i'm waiting for the battle of the five armies at the end

as for the split i think they might do a split around where they arrive and beorn's house possibly, cause that would be the most logical one or maybe just after they get out of the misty mountains

i'd really like to see them do the silmarillion, multiple balrog fights and get to see morogoth and galadriels betrayal and all that fun stuff and if we're lucky a very young elrond and his brother

the scary part about aragorn and arwen is they are distant cousins

Reading the headlines I thought it was gonna be Benicio del Toro, not Guillermo del Toro... Damn that would be funny, hobbits walking around with suitcase machineguns taking on the evil druglord Smaug.

So long as Sir Ian McKellen plays Gandalf, I'll watch it. McKellen is IMHO one of the best elderly actors in the business, right up there with Patrick Stewart and Sean Connery... F**K, what if all three were in a movie together? It could be called "Baldy, Bond, and the Bugger". I so claim trademark on that title : D

Khell_Sennet:

So long as Sir Ian McKellen plays Gandalf, I'll watch it. McKellen is IMHO one of the best elderly actors in the business, right up there with Patrick Stewart and Sean Connery... F**K, what if all three were in a movie together? It could be called "Baldy, Bond, and the Bugger". I so claim trademark on that title : D

i think Sir Ian has already said "yeah i want to do gandalf", he was so awesome as him too and get Hugo back as Elrond as well

yeah i agree that combo would make a movie full of awesome

Patrick Stewart is just awesome, his bumper sticker says "picard/riker 2008: make it so", he actually used to wear a beavis and butthead tshirt under his star fleet uniform for a bit of a laugh.

the thing about Sir Ian and Patrick is they don't take themselves all that seriously and love to lampoon themselves. if you get a chance watch the show Extras with them in it, the Patrick Stewart episode is the best one. they were also a great choice for professor x and magento because they have such a presence on screen, i think it's the theatre background both have

as for Sir Sean i got 2 things to say about "James Bond" and of course "Suck it Trebek", sadly tho he's retired from acting, he already declined to come back as Indy Sr :(

I Loved Pan's Labyrinth. Great choice.

Maybe Jeunet could have been a good choice as well, but it's in my eyes a good pick.

cleverlymadeup:

i'd really like to see them do the silmarillion, multiple balrog fights and get to see morogoth and galadriels betrayal and all that fun stuff and if we're lucky a very young elrond and his brother

I LOVED the Silmarillion, but there is no feasible way to make it a movie, or even a TV series. Too many characters, too large a timespan, etc. Shame.

Joined to vote Valve:

cleverlymadeup:

i'd really like to see them do the silmarillion, multiple balrog fights and get to see morogoth and galadriels betrayal and all that fun stuff and if we're lucky a very young elrond and his brother

I LOVED the Silmarillion, but there is no feasible way to make it a movie, or even a TV series. Too many characters, too large a timespan, etc. Shame.

you could say that a lot was missed from LoTR and they still did it.

nightfish:

Joined to vote Valve:

cleverlymadeup:

i'd really like to see them do the silmarillion, multiple balrog fights and get to see morogoth and galadriels betrayal and all that fun stuff and if we're lucky a very young elrond and his brother

I LOVED the Silmarillion, but there is no feasible way to make it a movie, or even a TV series. Too many characters, too large a timespan, etc. Shame.

you could say that a lot was missed from LoTR and they still did it.

Yeah, but the Silmarillion is a whole different ballgame to Lord Of The Rings. There's probably enough material within that one book to amount to ten LOTRs. And while I enjoyed it, it lacked the essential human element to transfer well to screen. The Silmarillion is focused around grand heroes like Feanor and Beren, and epic cities like Gondolin. There aren't any Sam Gamgee characters or Bree settings that a viewing audience would be able to relate to. That's not a slight on Tolkien. Indeed, that's the way he set out for the Silmarillion to be, to be comparable to the great myths and legends of British (and other) folklore. Such a grand setting, however, while good in novel form, really doesn't translate well to film.

Although having said that, I have sometimes pondered on whether a videogame could be made in the Silmarillion setting. Maybe an RPG with good/evil elements, a la KOTOR...

j-e-f-f-e-r-s:

nightfish:

Joined to vote Valve:

cleverlymadeup:

i'd really like to see them do the silmarillion, multiple balrog fights and get to see morogoth and galadriels betrayal and all that fun stuff and if we're lucky a very young elrond and his brother

I LOVED the Silmarillion, but there is no feasible way to make it a movie, or even a TV series. Too many characters, too large a timespan, etc. Shame.

you could say that a lot was missed from LoTR and they still did it.

Yeah, but the Silmarillion is a whole different ballgame to Lord Of The Rings. There's probably enough material within that one book to amount to ten LOTRs. And while I enjoyed it, it lacked the essential human element to transfer well to screen. The Silmarillion is focused around grand heroes like Feanor and Beren, and epic cities like Gondolin. There aren't any Sam Gamgee characters or Bree settings that a viewing audience would be able to relate to. That's not a slight on Tolkien. Indeed, that's the way he set out for the Silmarillion to be, to be comparable to the great myths and legends of British (and other) folklore. Such a grand setting, however, while good in novel form, really doesn't translate well to film.

Although having said that, I have sometimes pondered on whether a videogame could be made in the Silmarillion setting. Maybe an RPG with good/evil elements, a la KOTOR...

I would think it could be done but it would need a good set of directors / producers and screenwriters.

After Pan's Labyrinth I have full faith in this guy. Plus I enjoyed the reading the Hobbit more then I did with the LotR's series.

I hate it when they decide to milk more money out of a masterpiece (ok it wasn't THAT good), it leavs more room for fucking up. But i suppose the movies were milking of the books.

Perwer:
I hate it when they decide to milk more money out of a masterpiece (ok it wasn't THAT good), it leavs more room for fucking up. But i suppose the movies were milking of the books.

You're saying that the LotR's wasn't a masterpiece. Even if you hated it you can't deny how awesome it was and how amazing to pull it off would have been. It's like saying the Mona Lisa sucks.

Hey, great. Lets see how it comes out.

- A procrastinator

Riddles in the Dark would be interesting to see.

Interesting choice. Pan's Labyrinth was one of those films that snuck in under the radar of all the other hyped movies and really made its mark. Del Toro's representation of the fantasy element makes him a good match with Jackson. Sounds like it's going to be an interesting couple of movies.

I know nothing about directors, but I'll definately be watching this movie if only for the promise of Ian McKellen's Gandalf. They'd better get the same guy to do Gollum's voice, as well. I wonder who would play Bilbo...

If they replace Ian, however, The Hobbit will go down into a certain list of mine which currently consists of the later Police Academy films and Ocean's Thirteen.

No, it's not a good list.

I'm glad people aren't mentioning Hellboy that much, fine if you never read the comics but considering it was supposed to be a movie for the fan(boys)s...*cough Bullshit!*

Yeah I think The Hobbit is much more suited to his (Del Toro's) aesthetic, plus the fact he's under pressure to just merely equal the epicness of P.Jackson's film making

Fangface74:
I'm glad people aren't mentioning Hellboy that much, fine if you never read the comics but considering it was supposed to be a movie for the fan(boys)s...*cough Bullshit!*

i liked hellboy and i do believe Mike Mignola had a large part in making the hellboy movies as well, much like the changes in hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy were made by Douglas Adams himself, Mike did some in hellboy

and i know simarilion would be hard to do as a movie but it would be damn cool, especially the battle at the end with multiple balrogs and the gods all fighting and everyone but galadriel being let back into the west

with lotr i totally forgot some of the stuff they did cut out till after the extended edtions came out, tho some things i picked out right away, like tom bombadil and the crystal caverns at the end of two towers and of course the mouth of sauron, which was one of the best scenes and parts of return of the king

it was still one of the best adaptations to the screen of the books and i think the fact the family and some of the artists that did work on the calendars and such were brought in to design stuff also helped out a lot

The fact there were changes made by the creator, more often than not means the studio who is making (read:paying for) the movie, want a safer return on their investment. Big names (nothing to do with what makes a good movie), Lots of effects (nothing to do with what makes a good movie), and lots of action scenes (you get the idea) all are required without exception, don't get me wrong, I love all those elements in a flick but not for the sake of bums-on-seats. Mignola's minimalist,gothic style is more about what you can't see, the whole point of his take on the supernatural world takes a 'less is more' approach. Hellboy was a typical hollywood affair, ultimately watchable but it was NOT an accurate adaption. And it's possible to bring a graphic novel to the big screen without being overly showy and keeping action well paced....it was called Sin City.

fsanch:
Interesting choice. Pan's Labyrinth was one of those films that snuck in under the radar of all the other hyped movies and really made its mark. Del Toro's representation of the fantasy element makes him a good match with Jackson. Sounds like it's going to be an interesting couple of movies.

Plus they look kinda similar. Beardy, big glasses, both slightly plump. They could be brothers...

The hobbit is my favorite tolkien book. Please don't fuck it up.

Am I the only one who thought that Pans labyrinth was self indulgent crap? Perhaps it was because I had no warning about quite how violent it was, so I took my wife to see it she enjoyed hellboy so I thought it would be okay for her. She still has nightmares about that scene where the facist beats the boy to death with the bottle so thanks for that.

So it will be a very difficult sell to get her to watch this despite her loving LoTR with him at the helm. It is necessary to show horror in fantasy yeah we know that but not neccesary to show sadism torture and overt violence.

I am not a prude I love violent films but I just dont want my wife exposed to such horrors.

electric discordian:

I am not a prude I love violent films but I just dont want my wife exposed to such horrors.

wait... your judging a film based on another persons personal tastes? its 'self-indulgent crap' because the person next to you was horrified? wouldn't that make it overtly violent? Where does self-indulgence come into play?

Not a personal attack, but i'm always suspicious when a reprimand comes with "i don't want [x] exposed to [subject]", the "effect" of games/rock'n'roll/comics on youth anyone? its a technical fallacy.

Someone being unsuitable to view something does not make the object in view unsuitable.

that said, i like the idea of putting the bite back into fantasy, fairies are not fun, the kill you for their own fun.

Great directing choice. Pan's Labirynth was a great film full of exciting and twisted visual delights, and Hellboy in my opinion was a tad underrated.

Can't wait to see how Del Toro leaves his visual mark on middle earth.

Ultrajoe:

electric discordian:

I am not a prude I love violent films but I just dont want my wife exposed to such horrors.

wait... your judging a film based on another persons personal tastes? its 'self-indulgent crap' because the person next to you was horrified? wouldn't that make it overtly violent? Where does self-indulgence come into play?

Not a personal attack, but i'm always suspicious when a reprimand comes with "i don't want [x] exposed to [subject]", the "effect" of games/rock'n'roll/comics on youth anyone? its a technical fallacy.

Someone being unsuitable to view something does not make the object in view unsuitable.

that said, i like the idea of putting the bite back into fantasy, fairies are not fun, the kill you for their own fun.

Im sure my wife would kiss you for being thought of as a youth! I know fairies are not fun, I call it self indulgent because Del Toro made a film purely for himself set in a time setting that was mainly interesting to him as it occured in a period in his own countries history. Oh it was visually stunning when you could see through the rain, uplifting if you removed the torture, nazis brutal beatings and blind cannibalistic half gods. It just seemed a damp squib to me overhyped and too dark for it's own good.

Would I be willing to watch it again without the wife? Actually I doubt it, if I want nazi's I will watch Romper Stomper if I want brutal violence I will watch a badly dubbed Lucio Fulchi zombie epic, If I want fantasy I will watch Lotr. But Pans Labyrinth just leaves a bitter taste.