Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Guillermo Del Toro talks about 'The Strain Trilogy'
In the following video, Guillermo Del Toro talks about 'The Strain Trilogy' (which he has co-written with Chuck Hogan and he first volume of which will be available June 2nd), a trilogy of books about vampires.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009
'The Hobbit' Will Be Two Films
Guillermo Del Toro and Peter Jackson confirmed (talking to to Empire Magazine in honor of the publication's 20th birthday) that 'The Hobbit' will be two films.This should put to bed the theories that one film would focus on The Hobbit and the second would be a bridge film to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Del Toro: "We've decided to have The Hobbit span the two movies, including the White Council and the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur."
Jackson: "We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie. The essential brief was to do The Hobbit, and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more style, if you like, of the [LOTR] trilogy."
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Thursday, September 25, 2008
Guillermo Del Toro Set To Pen Vampire Novels
IMDB
Moviemaker Guillermo Del Toro can add novelist to his resume - he is set to release a trilogy of vampire stories.
The Hellboy director will collaborate with revered crime writer Chuck Hogan on the three tales, with the first - entitled The Strain - due to hit stores next summer.
Del Toro says, "The idea is epic in scope. The trilogy advances in unexpected ways and each book contains unique and surprising revelations about the history, physiology and lore of the vampiric race, tracing its roots all the way back to its Old Testament origins."
It is not known whether Del Toro plans to adapt the trilogy for the big screen.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Lord of the Rings prequels:Guillermo Del Toro and Peter Jackson speak
The live chat "An Unexpected Party" was held on May 24 at Weta's website between fans and Guillermo del Toro, director of The Hobbit and its untitled sequel, and executive producer Peter Jackson. Del Toro and Jackson fielded fans' inquiries about the two projects, revealing a good deal about their plans for them.
"At this point in time the plan is to write [the screenplays] for the rest of this year and start early conceptual designs. 2009 will be dedicated to pre-production on both movies and 2010 will be the year we shoot both films back to back," Jackson told fans. "Post production follows one film at a time with The Hobbit being released December 2011, and (Film Two) release Dec 2012. That is the schedule in about as much detail as we have ourselves at the moment." Del Toro said the ratings for the two Hobbit movies would be the same as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, "an intense PG-13."
Casting buzz claims that LOTR veterans Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn), and Andy Serkis (Gollum) have all been approached to reprise their respective roles for the films. Del Toro clarified the matter by saying, "No casting has started yet ... but some people have thrown their helmet into the ring."
Jackson went further. "No casting has commenced and won't until the scripts are written. We have had chats with one or two of the LOTR actors however but the casting will be driven largely by the writing and it is impossible to cast 13 dwarves without knowing their personality and characters. We anticipate we won't be in serious casting mode for these movies until well into next year."
The Oscar-winning LOTR filmmaker later wrote that, "apart from extreme circumstances, we would never recast a character who appeared in the LOTR trilogy. You can read The Hobbit and pretty much see which characters play a part. The unknown factor is Film Two, which we are still developing. If we wished to write one of the LOTR characters into the narrative of Film Two, we would only do that with that actors blessing, and willingness to take part. Otherwise we'd take the writing in another direction."
Del Toro and Jackson's attention is now dedicated to adapting The Hobbit for the screen and developing a second film from scratch along with LOTR co-screenwriters Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. Jackson said that "the second movie doesn't have a title yet and probably won't until we write the script. As you will see we have the incredibly boring name Film Two which I assure you will not last for very long. Bear with us."
When asked if del Toro's Hobbit, which is based on a children's book, would depart tonally from the dark LOTR trilogy, Jackson replied, "I personally feel The Hobbit can and should have a different tone. The 'tone' of these stories shouldn't be defined by the pressure our characters were under in LOTR. The world is a different place at the time of The Hobbit. The shadow is not so dark. However, what should stay the same is the reality of Middle-earth, and the integrity we bring to it as film makers."
Del Toro advised fans that, unlike in the LOTR movies, animal characters in his Hobbit will speak (as they do in the book). "I think it should be done exactly as in the book -- the 'talking beast' motif has to exist already to allow for that great character that is Smaug. It is far more jarring to have a linear movie and then -- out of the blue -- a talking Dragon."
Of Smaug, del Toro wrote that he "should not be 'the dragon in the Hobbit movie' as if it was just another creature in the bestiary. Smaug should be 'The DRAGON' for all movies past and present. The shadow he cast and the greed he comes to embody -- the 'need to own' casts its long shadow and creates a dramatic/thematic contunity of sorts that articulates the story throughout."
ign.com,24/5/2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Lord of the Rings prequels:The Hobbit and more
Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh expressed interest in 1995 in filming The Hobbit, which would be part one of a trilogy (the other two would have been films based on The Lord of the Rings). Frustration arose when Jackson's producer,Harvey Weinstein, discovered Saul Saentz had production rights to The Hobbit, but distribution rights still belonged to United Artists. The studio was on the market, so Weinstein's attempts to buy those rights were unsuccessful. Weinstein asked Jackson to press on with adapting The Lord of the Rings.MGM bought United Artists, while New Line earned the rights to produce The Lord of the Rings. New Line has a limited-time option on The Hobbit, with their hold on the rights set to expire in 2010.In September 2006, MGM expressed interest in teaming up with New Line and Jackson to make the film.
In March 2005, Jackson launched a lawsuit against New Line, claiming he had lost revenue from merchandising, video, and computer games releases associated with The Fellowship of The Ring. Jackson felt the lawsuit was minor, and that New Line would still let him make the film. New Line co-founder Robert Shaye was annoyed with the lawsuit and said in January 2007 that Jackson would never again direct a film for New Line, accusing him of being greedy. But in August 2007, after a string of flops, Shaye was trying to repair his relationship with the director. He said, "I really respect and admire Peter and would love for him to be creatively involved in some way in The Hobbit." In September, New Line was fined $125,000 for failing to provide requested accounting documents.
On December 18,2007, it was announced that Jackson would be the executive producer of The Hobbit and its sequel. And it was hoped that back-to-back shooting on these films would begin in 2009, and then released in December 2010 and December 2011 respectively. New Line and MGM will co-finance the film, and the latter studio will distribute the films outside North America — New Line's first ever such deal with another major studio.
The Tolkien Estate filed a lawsuit against New Line on February 11,2008, for violating Tolkien's original deal with Saul Zaentz that they would earn 7.5% of the gross from a film adaptation. The Estate is seeking compensation of $150 million, because they were only paid $62,500 before production of the trilogy began. A court order was also filed that would allow the Tolkien Trust to terminate any rights to future films based on Tolkiens work, including The Hobbit and the second derivative prequel.
In April 2008, Guillermo del Toro signed on to direct both pictures, and he will move New Zealand for four years after finishing Hellboy II: The Golden Army to develop the duology with Jackson and the teams at WETA and Wingnut Films. The director met with Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis (who hope to reprise their roles as Gandalf and Gollum respectively), concept artists John Howe and Alan Lee, Weta Workshop head Richard Taylor, make-up artist Gino Acevedo and composer Howard Shore to keep continuity with the previous films. Del Toro said that he thought the world of The Hobbit is a "world that is slightly more golden at the beginning, a very innocent environment ... taking you from a time of more purity to a darker reality throughout the film, but [in a manner] in the spirit of the book". He also intends to push the technology of animatronics to new levels ; "We really want to take the state-of-the-art animatronics and take a leap ten years into the future with the technology we will develop for the creatures in the movie. We have every intention to do for animatronics and special effectswhat the other films (LotR trilogy) did for virtual reality . Producer Mark Ordesky will return to supervise the prequels,and each film will cost around $150 million.The films are now expected for 2011/2012, and the New Line-MGM distribution agreement remains in place.
MGM expressed interest in another prequel film, set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Jackson concurred, stating "one of the drawbacks of The Hobbit is [that] it's relatively lightweight compared to LOTR... There [are] a lot of sections in which a character like Gandalf disappears for a while. From memory — I mean, I haven't read it for a while now — but I think he references going off to meet with the White Council, who are actually characters like Galadriel and Saruman and people that we see in Lord of the Rings. He mysteriously vanishes for a while and then comes back, but we don't really know what goes on." Del Toro said the sequel was "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 five volumes of the entire story." Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, and Christopher Lee have said they would reprise their roles as Legolas, Aragorn, Galadriel, Frodo Baggins, and Saruman if they were required for either prequel. Source:wikipedia.org
