Hobbit update

In an interview with Empire, producer Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro divulged their plans for splitting “The Hobbit” into two movies:

“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,” says Del Toro.

“We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie,” adds Jackson. “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.”

It was earlier reported that the second Hobbit movie would cover the 60 years between what happened in “The Hobbit” and what happened in “The Lord of the Rings.” That would have meant lots of non-Tolkien filler. So I think this is a much better idea. I’m also intrigued by del Toro being the director. As he showed in “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Hell Boy II,” he is a master of making up evocative monsters and strangely effective hybrids of realism and fantasy. Though “Pan’s” was way too dark for a Tolkien tale, “Hell Boy” suggested that del Toro could handle less heavy-handed fare.

HT: One Eternal Day