It would be a 'privilege' to direct THE HOBBIT

Well, the extremely low % of our traffic who decide to vote anyway but I think it's fair to say that if you took a big poll across all the movie sites across the web, del Toro's name would probably come out as the huge fan favourite. He just seems to be the perfect candidate, crossing all the boxes that are needed. He can handle big productions (HELLBOY), he has unquestioned artistic vision, he can do fantasy but always grounded in the real world which is something Tolkien's work relies on (PAN'S LABYRINTH), he knows special effects, he's paid his dues with years of work in smaller productions and his work in the last few years have made him one of the most talked about directors on the planet. And just like Sam Raimi, it would seem he wants the gig...

€œI€™ve heard some rumblings, but nothing official. I don€™t want to think about it because it€™s such an eventuality,€ Guillermo del Toro told EW. €œIt€™s the only Tolkien book I read. I tried my best to read the Lord of the Rings, the trilogy. I could not. I could not. They were very dense. And then one day, I bought The Hobbit. I read it and I loved it. So it would be a privilege. But listen, I wish I knew.€
And my feeling is those won't be the only two big directors who express an interest in helming this in the near future. It's rare such a huge project like THE HOBBIT comes up for grabs, the only comparison I could make is if George Lucas decided to give free reign to anyone to direct a new STAR WARS production. But we have kinda been in this situation before. When the massive HALO production was still alive, del Toro was firmly the fan's favourite to direct that adaptation under Peter Jackson's wing and as I understand it, they had a meeting about it and Jackson offered him the job outright but del Toro decided he wanted to do HELLBOY II instead, fearing the script for HALO wasn't up to scratch. Whilst with Jackson, he did get to see the WETA workshop, or what he calls 'heaven'...
€I met Peter and Fran when we were trying to do Halo. I think what they€™re doing in New Zealand is amazing. What they€™re doing, in terms of the way they approach filmmaking €” the way I see it is, it€™s Hollywood the way God intended it. Because it€™s a filmmaker€™s dream and a filmmaker€™s facility. So it€™s heaven. The question is: Will I go to heaven? I have no idea.€
Exciting times ahead. The news of a new 'LORD OF THE RINGS prequel' as the British press are calling it, has hit pretty big time here in the U.K. and I kept seeing announcements about Peter Jackson's involvement on every channel, radio and even printed press. We have been burnt with THE HOBBIT so many times in the past, I really hope this time it runs through smoothly and it actually gets made. This is probably the closest we have been to a HOBBIT movie for years and years... let's hope they get the directing choice right. And as we've said, Jackson won't struggle to find candidates who want the job. source - slash film

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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.