Guillermo del Toro still not directing The Hobbit…
… yet, anyway. The director of Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy II checked in with Empire Online for the second time in two weeks (albeit briefly this time), and had this to say: “I wish it was definite, but it isn’t. It’s still in talks, there are still a lot of ‘T’s to cross and ‘I’s to dot. It’s certainly not certain yet…But, as far as I’m concerned, [if it was definite] I would be packed in ten seconds." He also chimes in about casting and the lawsuit filed by the Tolkein Estate against New Line, for nonpayment of royalties.
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Why won’t Peter Jackson suck it up and do it himself? He already proved he could handle the series.
I believe the reason given when they first announced that he was producing it was that he’s working on The Lovely Bones (set for a 2009 release) and they wanted to get the ball rolling on the Hobbit films sooner than that, so Hobbit could hit theaters in Christmas 2009.
I’m sure many Rings fans would rather wait a year or two and have him do it, but I don’t know… This may seem like blasphemy to a lot of people, but while I liked the Rings movies, Jackson was a bit too melodramatic for my taste. I think del Toro would be able to do a better job, honestly.
Plus, I have a feeling that if he REALLY wanted to do them, he would.
On top of all that, there’s enough difference in tone between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings that having a different directorial vision behind the two sets of movies makes sense.