Del Toro Quits 'The Hobbit'

[Son of Númenor]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

was excited to see Del Toro's darker, more fantastic sensibility in The Hobbit.

I was too. I hadn't seen Pan's Labyrinth until a few days ago and was really impressed with the mythic/archetypal characters he created. It definitely opened up my imagination with regards to how The Hobbit movies could turn out.

It will be very interesting to see what happens in terms of a new director. At this point it seems logical for Jackson to step in. Tintin is in the can, and he got a palette-cleansing, smaller scale film out of his system with The Lovely Bones.

I sincerely hope Jackson does not do these films. He has made some real garbage since the LOTR trilogy IMO.

A name that pops to my head is Alfonso Cuaron. He directed The Prisoner of Azkaban, the most highly critically regarded of the Harry Potter films, produced Pan's Labyrinth, and generally has a good directorial touch with regard to character and setting. But I doubt he's even in the consideration.

The business of bringing The Hobbit to the big screen has become a saga in and of itself, hasn't it?

The road goes ever on and on, down from the high-rise offices where the legal wrangling began...

[Aiwendil]

Originally Posted by Mr. Underhill

I was excited to see Del Toro's darker, more fantastic sensibility in The Hobbit.

So was I. I was particularly looking forward to seeing how his style would interact with Jackson's hyper-realistic approach; collaborations between people with divergent aesthetic sensibilities sometimes result in something new and wonderful and sometimes in utter rubbish, but they're almost always interesting.

Originally Posted by Son of Numenor

A name that pops to my head is Alfonso Cuaron.

An interesting idea. I have to say, though, that I was not terribly impressed with the direction in Azkaban. It struck me as over the top in a lot of little ways - for instance, I thought the whole Knight Bus sequence was rather over-done.

[Mister Underhill]

Originally Posted by Son of Númenor

A name that pops to my head is Alfonso Cuaron.

Interesting. Can't say I'm very familiar with his work. Children of Men had some interesting stuff in it, but it was way too bleak for my tastes. I saw Azkaban but don't remember a lot of details. He's pals with Del Toro, though, so actually it seems there's a good chance that his name has been thrown into the pot.

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

...collaborations between people with divergent aesthetic sensibilities sometimes result in something new and wonderful and sometimes in utter rubbish, but they're almost always interesting.

Indeed! I think that sort of tension was part of what made Raiders of the Lost Ark so dynamic.

[Son of Númenor]

Interesting. Can't say I'm very familiar with his work. Children of Men had some interesting stuff in it, but it was way too bleak for my tastes. I saw Azkaban but don't remember a lot of details. He's pals with Del Toro, though, so actually it seems there's a good chance that his name has been thrown into the pot.

Yeah, I thought of him because of his involvement in Pan's Labyrinth. I actually never saw Azkaban (or any other HP film for that matter); was just going on its critical reception. I like a lot of his Spanish-language stuff, particularly Y Tu Mama Tambien, although thematically/generically it couldn't be more different from The Hobbit.

[Lastande Took]

When I found out this morning, my reactions were in this order: panic, cry, get angry, plot to take over and direct it myself, and now I'm just sadly waiting this whole business out. I was getting excited about a live-action Hobbit.

[Nogrod]

Del Toro doing it was clearly too good to be true... (not my favourite director but one of the best available with big money today)

So back to the real-life. Maybe we'll get some smooth Hollywood director to make it a mixture of epic phantasy, romantic comedy and even more of the teen-audiences sucking tricks / actors then?

Tough times in Wall Street, lousy market-oriented movies in Main Street...

[Mithalwen]

I can't see it being made in a hurry - still uncast as far as we know and now no director. And if even Bond is being delayed then even commerciality won't guarantee a film being made if it is going to need a big budget. Not that I ever thought that the film wouldn't be market orientated since that was used as the justification for all the changes to LOTR.

And since LOTR came out tweenage fantasy has turned out not to be an infallible cash cow - I am sure that the last Harry Potters will be fine but not much sign of the remaining Narnia or Dark Materials happening - and neither is Jackson after The Lovely Bones.

I really hope that a completely fresh approach is given. It is long enough now - after all there is a generation of children who weren't born when LOTR was released who are now the perfect age for a children's movie of The Hobbit - would it be such a bad thing if it were made as such rather than as a prequel to Jackson's LOTR?

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

I really hope that a completely fresh approach is given. It is long enough now - after all there is a generation of children who weren't born when LOTR was released who are now the perfect age for a children's movie of The Hobbit - would it be such a bad thing if it were made as such rather than as a prequel to Jackson's LOTR?

I wouldn't think so, but I don't think like the movie industry. After seeing the travesty that they made of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, I would expect the studios to want TH to appeal to their perception of the market with the most cash to spend. I would've thought that the Percy J books would be tailor made to Hollywood -- full of humor, aimed at the youth market, lots of action -- but they stripped it of all humor, changed the plot completely, not to mention the characters (and I'm not referring to them making the central characters older, that made sense, for a movie market)... It was shocking. I imagine the studios want to stick with Peter J's formula because it made them lots of money. I also have to wonder if Del Toro left because he wanted to be more faithful to the book, and the studio hated it....

Sigh....

[Mister Underhill]

Originally Posted by Son of Númenor

I sincerely hope Jackson does not do these films.

Update: Entertainment Weekly's website is reporting that Jackson's manager has ruled out Jackson as the director.