Del Toro in talks to direct The Hobbit.

4 responses to “Del Toro in talks to direct The Hobbit.”

1. Del Toro has flirted with the idea of adapting other people’s children’s stories before, sort of — he claimed to have turned down The Chronicles of Narnia because he didn’t want to resurrect the Lion, and he recently said he would be interested in directing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows now that the franchise is more grown up and, uh, darker — but this appears to be the first time he will actually do it. So the question is: can he rein himself in? Every movie he has directed so far has been R-rated, with the exception of Hellboy — and even that was released in an “unrated” cut. I know, I know, Peter Jackson had done some pretty extreme stuff too before he adapted The Lord of the Rings — but then, that was an inherently much more mature storyline anyway.

2. What a relief! I hated that Rankin Bass thing when I first saw it, and I was in High School at the time. The advent of that awful thing actually prompted me to read the book for the first time. It was my first Tolkien. I was transported! In those days there wasn’t much to choose from on TV, so I was very excited about the show…until I saw it. The cutesy Hobbits (barf) and those SONGS! Double barf.

   Now I’m excited again!

3. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I’m a bit concerned about Del Toro’s fascination with darkness, but this could be exciting nonetheless.

4. And the world shuddered as legions of fans broke into raucous applause.

   ;-)