Cinematical posted some highlights from an extensive online chat transcript over on Weta Holics, and if you want to read the entire thing, head over there.

But otherwise, here are the top news items from the chat:

• Both films (The Hobbit and its Untitled Follow-Up) will be shot back-to-back in 2010, with the first arriving December, 2011 and the second in December, 2012. As far as rating goes, they’re shooting for “an intense PG-13.”
• They will not begin casting until the scripts are written, but said Ian McKellan will “absolutely” return as Gandalf and Ron Perlman will return; most likely not as the voice of Smog.
• Howard Shore will return to score the films.
• On what exactly the second film will be about, del Toro said: “The idea is to find a compelling way to join THE HOBBIT and FELLOWSHIP and enhance the 5 films both visually an in their Cosmology. There’s omissions and material enough in the available, licensed material to attempt this. The agreement is, however, that the second film must be relevant and emotionally strong enough to be brought to life but that we must try and contain the HOBBIT in a single film.”
• They’re currently working on a Blu-ray version of all three Lord of the Rings films, but it won’t be out this year.
• No plans are being made to shoot the two films in 3D … yet.

The best news to me is that the Blu-Ray versions of the originals are being worked on, even if it’s still a long ways off. Also having Howard Shore back to do the music is outstanding.

The downside? 2011? Ugh…that is so unbelievably far off. It really reminds me of when I first heard that a Lord of the Rings movie was being made. I believe when I found out, the waiting period for it was around three years.

Such a bummer, but hopefully the length of time to get it done and bring it to theaters will make it worthy of the originals.

The three actors who have been contacted are:

• Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn)
• Ian McKellen (Gandalf)
• Andy Serkis (Gollum)

Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are expected to write the screenplays under the direction of Peter Jackson and del Toro. Concerning the scripts and keeping the original actors, del Toro said this:

We will all be involved in the script in some fashion but the exact definition is about a week away. I am all for keeping the actors who originated the parts, as much as availability and their willingness will allow.

As far as the actors go there seems little doubt they will return. Serkis already has the production listed on his calendar of his official website. Ian McKellen left little doubt of his intentions when he spoke with Empire Magazine last month:

Yes, it’s true. I spoke to Guillermo in the very room that Peter Jackson offered me the part, and he confirmed that I would be reprising the role. Obviously, it’s not a part that you turn down; I loved playing Gandalf.

I suppose there’s a chance that Viggo Mortensen could be too busy now that he’s an Oscar nominated actor, but somehow I think he’ll find the time. It’s shaping up to be a pretty good production.

First off, seeing The Hobbit on the big screen like the recent Lord of the Rings films is a dream come true. But the sequel itself could be amazing, and a treat none of us would have ever expected.

TheOneRing.net talked to Del Toro and got all kinds of useful information, some of which I’ll quote below for you guys. This is what he had to say about the second film:

You know, I traveled to New Zealand just a little while ago, and one of the main reasons for going was to sit down and talk about the second film. ‘The Hobbit’, the book, is really one self-contained film, so for the second movie we sat down and worked it out. When we did this we got really excited because this second film is not a ‘tag on’, it’s not ‘filler’, it’s an integral part of telling the story of those 50 years of history lost in the narrative. There will be certain things that we will see from the first movie but from a different point of view, but it will feel like a volume, in the 5 volumes of the entire story. It will not feel like a bridge, I’ve been hearing it called ‘a bridge film’, it’s not, it’s an integral chapter of the story, and I think we’re all on the same page.

He’s committed to this project, even moving to New Zealand for the next four years:

Approximately [four years], my whole family, but the first stages of design and R&D will be done with me going back and fourth from LA and New Zealand because there are a lot of things I need to put to bed before I finally move to New Zealand. I’m going much sooner than my relatives would like!

We will officially be doing a lot of prep on ‘The Hobbit’ this summer, there is so much to do, its amazing. Just the reforestation of The Shire, re planting all those trees and plants will take months, and we’re going to be as exact as possible.

The best news I hear is that del Toro is trying very hard to keep the continuity between the films tight, so that going from The Hobbit all the way to Return of the King feels like the same world. He’ll even be using WETA for all the visual effects:

Yes, the essential elements for keeping continuity are on track, in the last few weeks I’ve been chatting with a ton of people via email, phone, and in person from the previous films. People like Andy Serkis, Sir Ian McKellen, Howard Shore, John Howe, Gino Acevedo, Richard Taylor next week I’m meeting Alan Lee. I’m doing this to ensure that whatever we do we keep continuity with the other films, yes it’s a world that is slightly more golden at the beginning, a very innocent environment.

What I’m trying to do is keep the elements in place but allow you to feel a progression from ‘The Hobbit’ until ‘The Return of the King’. I believe ‘The Hobbit’ is a very crucial volume in The Lord of the Rings, it is a narrative that starts out very much in an innocent and golden way. It is permeated from England going through World War One, so there is a loss of innocence and a darker tone as the book and the film progresses. We’ll be doing that in the first film, taking you from a time of more purity to a darker reality throughout the film, but I think that is in the spirit of the book. All these guys, Alan Lee, John Howe, these guys are integral for us to map out that progress in the two movies, and allow you to completely blend in to the universe that is already in place. But this will be a progression, it should not feel at the start of the film that this is the same time (as the beginning of ‘Fellowship’). 50 years in Shire time, is not the same as 50 years in human time, if you think about how our world has changed in only 7 or 8 years, you can think of it as decades of turmoil, those 50 years in Middle-earth.

Another thing people will notice, at the beginning of the film will be the palette, that will be slightly different, the world will be the same but it will be a more ‘golden’ world, a more wide-eyed world. But by no means will we depart from the canon, we will take the three previous films as canon. When I become part of a world that I love, such as this, I really come with a lot of enthusiasm and hard work, and we know we are recreating and creating a world that is part of the mythos of millions of people and we will approach it as passionately and respectfully as it needs to be taken.

And finally, the best part is that it appears two of the best characters from the Lord of the Rings trilogy will be back for The Hobbit. It would be hard to watch it without them:

Well, I had the most charming meeting with Sir Ian, and all bureaucracy pending, he’s on board, as is Andy Serkis. We will continue giving you progress reports as the occur. It is our intention that we will not lose any of the key elements.

What do you guys think? Are you getting excited for these films?

Source: TheOneRing.net

Anyone who’s delved much into the world of film production probably also knows that Ender’s Game has been in the process of being adapted into a movie for years and years now. Most recently I really thought it was going to happen because acclaimed director Wolfgang Peterson (Das Boot, The Perfect Storm, Air Force One) had been attached to the project for a while. I really thought he might do a decent job with a screenplay that’s (still) being written by Orson Scott Card himself.

Well, it’s now being reported that Peterson is no longer attached to Ender’s Game and the film is, once again, without a director. The film was originally slated to be released this year, if you can believe it. The producers are now in the hunt for a new director and are hoping to begin shooting by early 2009. The film, however, will require an extended pre-production due to the many visual effects expected (if you’ve read the book, you’ll know why) so that date isn’t even certain.

For those of you who haven’t read the book, this is the description from the jacket:

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race’s next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew “Ender� Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn’t make the cut�young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender’s skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender’s two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Sadly, all we can do now is continue to wait and hope that they don’t screw this one up like so many other movies and book adaptations in the past. Since they don’t have a director at the moment and the film has already been in production so long, might I suggest a couple of names?

• Alfonso Cuarón – He’s pretty busy, but worth waiting for. He proved he can take on sci-fi with Children of Men while Harry Potter showed that he can definitely handle children. Would give the production some serious legitimacy.
• Guillermo del Toro – I know he’s going to be pretty busy with the Hobbit films, but his track record in the sci-fi/fantasy world speaks for itself (Blade II, Hellboy I and II) and I hear he got a great performance out of his child actor in Pan’s Labyrinth.
• Steven Spielberg – Hey, as long as we’re making a wish list. No one right now does sci-fi better than Spielberg and his track record with children speaks for itself. The only downside is you don’t know if the movie will be a popcorn flick or a serious sci-fi piece.

How many of you have read this book? Who would you like to see direct this movie if you had your dream director on it?

Whew- Not yet. BUT there has been a lot of movement. And for the last few weeks there has been a lot of creative / cast / crew / visual talks and agreements and we have witnessed great progress in areas that I cannot disclose or that have already leaked from other sources.

I am dying to share news but I have to be patient and wait until the papers are done and my attachment is real. Nevertheless- a LOT of progress in defining the films, their cast and crew. And, may I add, we are all happily in synch about all creative aspects so far and all willing and eager to move forth.

I cannot say more but if all’s well the time will come To talk of many things: Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax — Of cabbages — and kings –

May Luck be with us

GDT

PD my silnece means nothing more than the fact that we are RUNNING against an impossible deadline on the HBII film, poster, campaign, ADR, VFX, etc I am SWAMPED.

BUT- Expect good things in the next 2 weeks and a nice item at COMICON. See you there-

He posted this on April 2 so you’d think we would have heard something more by now. Like he said, though, there’s a lot of stuff to do and he’s been pretty busy with HII:TGA.

Definitely some good people behind this movie.

The film appears to be of the science fiction horror genre with Brody and Polley as scientists who disregard ethical boundaries and splice together human and animal DNA to form a sort of hybrid organism.

This new species makes a final metamorphosis that could destroy humanity.

Splice is in post-production right now and is set for a 2009 release date, so we have quite awhile to wait.

The weirdness sets in when I researched this movie and discovered pictures of the creature that is created by the two scientists. I fully want to credit Aint it Cool News for posting these photos twice now (once they were asked to take them down), which you can see below.

A word of warning: One of these photos could be deemed NSFW. The creature is female and one of the shots is a sort of naked side view.

This movie is going to be interesting, judging from these photos. Adrien Brody is a great actor, the production team behind it is awesome, but the pictures are what jump out at you. They are startling and creepy.

I’ll let you judge it for yourself.

(I’m testing out a new photo gallery plugin here, hope you guys enjoy it)

If you want to see the rest of the photos, some of which were a bit too nude for me to want to post here, visit Aint it Cool News to see them all.

At least, that’s what The Tolkien Trust is trying to say. The Trust is a charity group that manages the J.R.R. Tolkien estate and has filed a lawsuit against New Line Cinema for $150 million.

Oh boy.

According to the article in Variety, The Tolkien Trust claims to have never been paid the gross profit participation payments that it’s owed.

It’s amazing to me that despite the films earning a worldwide gross of around $6 BILLION, New Line has somehow not paid out the 7.5% gross profit earnings they are owed. The terms of the contract date back to 1969 and a deal with United Artists, which has been passed down through the years and ended up with New Line.

The big problem here for those of us who really don’t care about the money, but mainly the films:

The Tolkien Trust is looking for punitive damages and a declaration from the courts that the Trust can terminate any rights New Line has to produce anymore movies based on the Lord of the Rings universe.

This could spell disaster for those of us waiting for The Hobbit films to be made.

What is it with New Line? First they have a suit settled with Peter Jackson over earnings they failed to give him, plus have been sued twice in other areas for these films.

You make SIX BILLION and have plenty more coming, and cannot make promised payments?

Ugh.

We’ll try to keep an eye on this mess as it progresses…there is a chance I guess that if The Trust gets their money, they wont pull the movie away from New Line.

This time around though, he’ll be producing the films, not directing, but that’s okay with me considering who they’ve gotten to helm the two prequels.

Guillermo del Toro is in talks to direct the back-to-back films, set for releases in 2010 and 2011. He’s responsible for the great Pan’s Labyrinth, but also such movies like Hellboy and Blade 2.

Pan’s Labyrinth won three Oscars among countless awards from other film festivals and award shows. I actually liked Hellboy and was sort of surprised that it actually had a 79% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Not too shabby.

Del Toro obviously has a great grasp on the fantasy genre so pairing him up with The Hobbit films seems like the right choice.

Jason Clark wrote more about this over at Inner88, as we continue to fight the good fight in out-doing each other for content, so head over there for more about it.