/film are reporting that an offer is out to
David Yates to helm
The Hobbit. Yates is the director of the last four
Harry Potter movies, including the two-part series finale' (
which wrapped over the weekend) and to us, feels like an incredibly safe, obvious, but at the same time incredibly uninspired choice by New Line and Warner Bros. I'm not all that familiar with the
Potter franchise as you know, but I have a lot of close friends who absolutely adore this universe and they tell me the energy was sucked out of the film adaptations when Yates came on board. And again, this coming from a
Potter outsider... there's a feeling here that he has been hired because he understands the pressures of working on a much loved fantasy series, and because he always brings his movies in on time and without problems, does what he is told, doesn't mess up, etc. Those kind of qualities are particularly appealing to a studio that recently lost it's two year visionary director but to us, this just feels like a negative recruitment strategy. How do you go from an auteur like del Toro, who has a refined creative pallet and imagination, and who puts his blood, sweat and tears into every production he makes, to a guy like Yates, whose only job on
Harry Potter was to translate someone else's material? Is that why Yates has been offered the job here? Just so he can work with del Toro's vision, his set designs, his pre-production work, his and
Fran Walsh, Phillapa Boyens and
Peter Jackson's scripts? Ask no questions, cause no problems?
Maybe I'm over-reacting but from what I understand, those last
Potter movies weren't great. I mentioned that Yates might be a contender
two weeks ago, but I probably undersold him by putting him in "Potential Contenders As They Have A Clean Slate" section. If I was thinking more clearly, I would have placed him directly to the 'We Don't Want Him To Get Hired... But He Almost Certainly Will" section. I guess there's no need to throw the toys out of the pram just yet as this is just an offer, and even if Yates signs a contract, presumably we are still many months away from MGM being in a position to greenlight the film. If that wasn't the case, del Toro would still be attached. But Yates to us, wouldn't be in our Top 25 for this job.