Guillermo del Toro To Pull Double Duty Directing Both “Hobbit” Films For Producer Peter Jackson

Back in December Peter Jackson and New Line buried the hatchet on their “Lord of the Rings” disagreements paving the way for a movie based on The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (Peter Jackson To Produce But Not Direct “The Hobbitâ€Â? And Sequel). In that announcement we learned that New Line was planning not one but two movies based on “The Hobbit.” It wasn’t long before Elijah Wood broke the news that the plan was to film one movie based on “The Hobbit” and one movie that would bridge the gap between the events of that book and the events of the “Lord of the Rings” movies (Elijah Wood breaks some amazing ‘Hobbit’ news).
 
As it turned out, Peter Jackson wanted to make the movies for “The Hobbit” but he didn’t really want to make the movies. Jackson will, of course, maintain approval over creative elements of the films, but he was too busy with his “Lovely Bones” and Tin Tin projects (Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson Teaming Up), among other things, to actually direct so he decided that he would produce the films and ensure that certain quality standards were met (and that he’d make tons and tons of money) while he found some other sucker…er…creative genius to direct the films.

In steps Guillermo del Toro, director of such films as “Mimic,” “Blade II,” “Hellboy,” and “Hellboy II: The Golden Army.” Oh yeah, and a little movie called “Pan’s Labyrinth” (that’s “El Laberinto del fauno” to some of our international friends). It was the latter film that probably won over Jackson and the money men and convinced them that del Toro was the guy to fill Jackson’s rather large shoes (and that’s not a fat joke).

It is what del Toro has been able to do with “Blade II” and the Hellboy movies, however, that has fans swooning over the possibilities. Few filmmakers, short of Jackson himself, have the goodwill and cachet that del Toro has managed to build up by maintaining a firm comprehension of his source material, an assured grasp of fantasy filmmaking and an understanding and command of the geek culture that often surrounds these things. The respect these circles have for del Toro surely did not go unnoticed by Jackson or his team when deciding on a director.

The Hobbit is centered on Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf who go 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. Because of the writer’s strike no one has been hired to adapt the Tolkien book into a screenplay yet. However, that process is expected to be fast tracked once the strike is over. It is almost a certainty that Jackson and del Toro will oversee the writing.

Each of the two films is expected to have a generous budget of $150 million. The two films will actually be shot simultaneously so del Toro, for all intents and purposes, will have $300 million at his disposal. If he can’t make some decent movies with that… Principal photography is tentatively set for 2009 with the release of the first film coming in 2010 and the second film in 2011.