"Guillermo will direct THE HOBBIT"

by Matt Holmes

Can you speak Spanish? No neither can I, but your just going to have to take my word for it. Guillermo del Toro whilst out in Paris promoting his recently produced horror movie THE ORPHANAGE (which I'm desperate to see come to the U.K.) confirmed to us all that he will indeed direct THE HOBBIT and although The One Ring claim it's not a done deal, they say it's 99% likely that del Toro is the man.

Apparently the female translator says...

Today it is our pleasure to announce something that everyone was hoping for, Guillermo will direct €˜The Hobbit€™

Now I guess we can officially look ahead to casting the picture. I love the heavy rumor of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins (you may remember he auditioned for Jackson's THE LOVELY BONES but the New Zealand director said he was too nice to be a killer, and they talked about THE HOBBIT) and of course it goes without saying they need Andy Serkis as Gollum and Ian McKellen as Gandalf... which they no doubt will with Jackson now on board in some capacity.

Looking at del Toro and his filmography, he's bound to find a creature or two for Doug Jones. Ron Perlman too I would be shocked if he didn't get a role somewhere down the line, even if it's a heavy make-up role.

I'm excited as hell over THE HOBBIT (I called it the most exciting project to have gone in development since I began this site...WATCHMEN is close and JLA would have that if it were done with Bale, Routh and actors of similar stature) and it's feels like those years when the STAR WARS prequels were just brewing.

Did I just put the kiss of death on this project? No way... THE HOBBIT is going to rule.

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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.