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LOS ANGELES - Guillermo del Toro is in talks to direct back-to-back installments of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, which is being co-financed by New Line and MGM.
Del Toro's name was on a short list of directors who could tackle the project, one of the most anticipated literary
adaptations of the past decade. An ill-chosen director for Hobbit could put billions of dollars at stake for New Line and MGM and could turn off an audience that encompasses millions of passionate readers, Tolkien fans and obsessive geeks.
Few filmmakers have the cachet that del Toro has, as well as a deep love for the source material, an assured grasp of fantasy filmmaking and an understanding and command of geek culture as well as its respect. Del Toro has built that goodwill through such films as the Oscar-nominated Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, Blade 2 (which was made by New Line) and The Devil's Backbone.
For New Line, making Hobbit had become a priority in the wake of its billion-dollar success with the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings movies, which were co-written and directed by Peter Jackson. Jackson wanted to adapt Hobbit, but when he got into a dispute with the studio over profit participation, the project went into limbo; neither New Line nor MGM, both rights-holders to the film, wanted to risk alienating fans of the trilogy by making an adaptation that didn't have Jackson's involvement.
The December resolution of the Jackson suit, facilitated by MGM CEO Harry Sloan, paved the way for Hobbit to get back on the road to the screen. However, because of other commitments that included The Lovely Bones and Tintin, Jackson could not take on writing and directing roles, opting instead to become an executive producer with approval over creative elements of the pair of films.
Because of the Writers Guild of America strike, no writer has been hired to adapt Tolkien's children's classic, though that process will be fast-tracked once the strike is resolved. Del Toro and Jackson will oversee Hobbit's writing.
Principal photography for the films, which will be shot simultaneously, is tentatively set for 2009. The production budget is estimated at $150 million per film. The release of the first film is slated for 2010 and the second for 2011.
Hobbit, which Tolkien initially wrote for his children, was published in the UK in 1937 to wide acclaim. It centered on Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who joins a group of dwarves and the wizard Gandalf on a quest to find the treasure of a dragon named Smaug. Tolkien went on to write The Lord of the Rings 17 years later.
Del Toro is putting the finishing touches on Universal's summer release Hellboy 2: The Golden Army and recently produced the critically acclaimed ghost story The Orphanage.
- REUTERS/Hollywood Reporter
