File this under, predictable, no-brainer news, sure, but nerds (and people who like the LOTR films like us) will be happy to know that Mexican director Guilleremo del Toro has officially signed on to direct “The Hobbit,” prequel to the “Lord Of The Rings” films by Peter Jackson according to EW’s Hollywood Insider blog, Variety and the rest of the world who got the NewLine statement.
There’s actually two Hobbit films to be made and del Toro will direct both (the latter is sort of an invention by the filmmakers and it deals with the 60-year period between “The Hobbit” and “The Fellowship of the Ring”). Update: The AP has now corrected their story and deleted their reference to this 60-year span. “New Line now says the movies are based on the book only.”
We all knew this was coming, del Toro said as much a in January, but apparently a lot of ink wasn’t dry yet and there was a ton of contract negotiating finagling to be dealt with. Just last week at ComicCon, del Toro told MTV that it was basically a done deal. “If all goes well we’ll finish up the legal complications – that are many – and hopefully next week there will be announcement… either way.”
The director will work back-to-back on both films and the plan is for him to move to New Zealand for the next four years. Filming is expected to start in 2009 with the films coming out in 2010 and 2011.
“We have long admired Guillermo’s work and cannot think of a more inspired filmmaker to take the journey back to Middle-earth,” Peter Jackson and longtime producing partner, Fran Walsh said in a statement.
We’re not over the moon about the news or anything, we’ve never seen a ‘Hellboy’ film, nor “Blade II” and don’t ever plan on it, but “Pan’s Labyrinth” was great, so we trust (hope) Jackson and co. can dial down any of his past, B-movie tendencies (that seemed to have evaporated with ‘Labyrinth’). In other words, if Jackson doesn’t want to do it, Del Toro seems like the next best nerdy shlub to handle the franchise. All hail the chubby geek.