The day after Guillermo del Toro announced he was walking away from “The Hobbit,” we spitballed in the office pantry and came up with the names of five directors who we thought could not only handle the job, they could ostensibly be offered the gig and more importantly, they’d have the free schedule to do it.
The first guy on our list, Sam Raimi is now out of the running since he signed up to helm ” “Oz The Great and Powerful,” but he seemed like the first logical choice as his name was batted around a lot before del Toro got the gig.
The next guy on our list seemed to be a no-brainer: South African-born filmmaker Neill Blomkamp, the protege of Peter Jackson who directed last year’s surprise sci-fi hit “District 9.”
Jackson obviously directed the original “Lord Of The Rings” series and produced “District 9” and he almost had Blomkamp helm the live-action adaptation of the video game “Halo” before the project fell apart.
Now the ‘LOTR’ fansite the OneRing.net is reporting that Blomkamp might be a contender. And sure, we can buy it. Of course he’s at least a contender and because of his relationship with Jackson, he’s probably at least considered the gig for a moment, but whether he’ll ultimately take the gig (or be officially offered it) remains to be seen.
Blomkamp is supposed to shoot his own original project this fall, and sure “The Hobbit” is a once and a lifetime gig that any director might shelve a passion project for, but still, file this one under rumor so far. Also, just remember any director could potentially be offered this gig, but that might not mean they’d want to take it. Aligning yourself with a company like MGM and then perhaps waiting years in vain for nothing? There is a reason Guillermo del Toro did leave. Whoever would come on board would simply have to relive all those financial headaches all over again and a new director doesn’t magically solve their insolvency issues.
One thing that the OneRing.net says which we totally believe is the fact that Jackson himself supposedly does not want to direct “The Hobbit.” They write, “Jackson really didn’t and really doesn’t want to be the director. If he did, he wouldn’t have hired Guillermo del Toro and he would already have stepped into the void and taken on the mantle. He leaves LOTR as his legacy and doesn’t feel comfortable competing against himself in that same arena.”
We couldn’t agree more, plus it sounds like Jackson is setting up his own secret project, even though he’s publicly said he’d consider the directing gig (if he had to, let’s not forget he also has the second “Tintin” film to contend with at some point).
Other names thrown around lately are “Harry Potter” director David Yates, David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”) and Brett Ratner. Another name who we think would be absolutely perfect is Alfonso Cuarón (“Children of Men”), but it sounds like he’ll be busy with “Gravity” for quite some time.
