Who should direct "The Hobbit"?

[Sauron the White]

Daily Variety is reporting this today

After "Drag Me to Hell," Raimi is expected to go right back up the mountaintop and take the helm of "The Hobbit" films for New Line and MGM now that Peter Jackson has made it clear he won't direct.

Sam Raimi -- is he on anybodys wish list?

[Kitanna]

Tim Burton does a good job with turning books into movies. I'm not sure I'd want him directing The Hobbit though. Adamson did a good job with Chronicles of Narnia and he could probably do the same for The Hobbit. PJ would seem the obvious choice, but I'd like to see someone else's vision of Middle-Earth. Taking this seriously, I'm not sure who I'd like to see directing it.

However, I thought about humorous choices, like Stanley Kubrick (yes, yes I realize he's dead). But image Bilbo floating on a barrel down a river of blood. Or Gandalf riding a bomb down right in the middle of the Battle of Five Armies. Not to mention the Goblin King throwing a pony bone into the air, only to have it become an eagle.

Daily Variety is reporting this today

Is that so? Did he direct all three Spider-Man films? Because the first two were good, but that third one was something else.

[zxcvbn]

I'm sceptical of Sam Raimi because his previous example in the fantasy genre was Xena Warrior Princess. I would say that the best person to direct the Hobbit so as to tie it in with the LOTR film trilogy would be Peter Jackson himself. Can't he tell Spielberg to direct the first Tintin film so that he'll be free?

[Thenamir]

There is an unconfirmed report on marketsaw.com that PJ may do exactly that - pass on the first two Tintin films to direct the third, which will leave him barely-adequate time to direct The Hobbit.

And as I voted for Sam Raimi but never defended my vote, I will do so now. First, Sam Raimi has indicated intense interest in the project - it wouldn't be "just another movie" to him, as it was not for PJ. Second, he has simultaneously professed respect for the existing work of Peter Jackson on the LOTR movies, and not keen to make radical changes in the style. Third, while the Spider-Man movies are not Fantasy per se, they do involve filming fantastic elements and making them look real. Raimi's work can be credited with virtually singlehandedly reviving comic-books (ahem, graphic-novels) as viable movie franchises.

So what if his last fantsy work was Xena? His work since then has been sterling, and I think he'd be a great choice.

[Kitanna]

Guillermo del Toro is another consideration if Raimi can't commit to The Hobbit. The look and feel of Pan's Labyrinth was really breathtaking. Perhaps del Toro could do the same from The Hobbit.

[Thenamir]

Personally, if Sam Raimi can't do the film (and PJ isn't going to rearrange his schedule), I agree that Del Toro would be another excellent choice.

[Galendor]

Originally Posted by Kitanna

Guillermo del Toro is another consideration if Raimi can't commit to The Hobbit. The look and feel of Pan's Labyrinth was really breathtaking. Perhaps del Toro could do the same from The Hobbit.

According to the link provided by Kitanna, here's a quote from del Toro about The Hobbit:

“I’ve heard some rumblings, but nothing official. I don’t want to think about it because it’s such an eventuality,” Guillermo del Toro told EW. “It’s the only Tolkien book I read. I tried my best to read the Lord of the Rings, the trilogy. I could not. I could not. They were very dense. And then one day, I bought The Hobbit. I read it and I loved it. So it would be a privilege. But listen, I wish I knew.”

Based on this, I may want to change my vote away from del Toro. Shouldn't being able to read (and appreciate) LOTR be a prerequisite for directing The Hobbit? Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if Raimi, Burton, and others haven't even read LOTR either.