Highlights from the del Toro/Jackson HOBBIT talk...

On their intentions, casting, shooting locations, age rating, tone, filming schedule and MORE!

Things we find out from the Hobbit chat which went down yesterday... Peter Jackson was in sunny New Zealand, Guillermo del Toro was in rainy London.

Peter Jackson informed us on the current status of the film...
at this point in time the plan is to write for the rest of this year and start early conceptual designs. 2009 will be dedicated to pre-production on both movies and 2010 will be the year we shoot both films back to back. Post productin follows one film at a time with The Hobbit being released Dec 2011, and F2 release Dec 2012. That is the schedule in about as much detail as we have ourselves at the moment.
On the subject of location shooting...
natural countryside and that's where a lot of shooting will take place. Location will be favored and real set construction.
On Ian Holm, who immortalized Bilbo Baggins in the original but is probably too old for a prequel...
We will utilize him in some fashion for sure but the difficulty of th erole will be better assesed after we do the script (s).
On Howard Shore returning to compose the score...
Yes- absolutely, Shore is teh VOICE of these films and we will absolutely be invited back. Peter and Fran have talked to him a couple of times already and Ive exchanged emails about the subject. He will return.
On the subject of Ron Perlman as the voice of Smaug (I think Doug Jones will end up with that gig, Perlman possibly Thoarin Oakensfield)...
At this time the voice of Smaug is down to a very few choices in my head and I have a completely specific one, Ron has a good chance but I have other plans for RP... we will see...
Ian McKellen returning as Gandalf...
Absolutely!! (del Toro) absolutely (Jackson)

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Age rating...
PG13 on both movies (Jackson) An intense PG-13 (del Toro)
On the tone...
As I said earlier, I personally feel that The Hobbit can, and should have a different tone. The "tone" of these stories shouldn't be defined by the pressure our characters were under in LOTR. The world is a different place at the time of the Hobbit. The shadow is not so dark. However, what should stay the same is the reality of Middle-earth, and the integrity we bring to it as film makers.
On returning actors...
Unequivocally, every single actor that originated a role in the Trilogy will be asked to participate and reprise it. If Health, availability or willigness become obstacles €“ and only in that case recasting would be considered.
del Toro on the subject of aspect ratio...
I normally use 1:85 but I thoroughly plan to respect Peter€™s choice of format used in the Trilogy (2:35:1) but it is my intention, for now, to shoot this on film, not HD.
READ WHOLE TRANSCRIPT HERE BUT EVERY OTHER BIG QUESTION IS DEFERRED UNTIL THE SCRIPT IS WRITTEN
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Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.