What exactly is going on with the two-part adaptation of The Hobbit? The world seems to be holding its breath in anticipation, including us, but as the calendar turned to November, we turned to a trusted rock-solid inside source and found a dragon’s treasure of updates. Read the rest of this entry »
From Total Film: Eighteen months ago, Guillermo del Toro had a 10-year-plan. His life was mapped out, and it had nothing to do with JRR Tolkien’s lovingly rendered cartography of Middle-earth. “I was calmly laying out the next decade of my life when The Hobbit appeared,” he laughs. “I was preparing all these things and all of a sudden The Hobbit shows up and takes over my life.” Make no mistake: The Hobbit is his precious. Del Toro knows more than anyone that this diptych could – should – define his career. And so the director has been busy building a world that not only honours JRR Tolkien’s book and Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy but will emerge assuredly, triumphantly, his own. More..
Oscar-winner Guillermo Del Toro may be a big guy in Hollywood circles but the director of The Hobbit is only too happy to help some of the local film industry’s “little guys”. He has pledged his name and support to a Q&A fundraising event for Wellington producer Bonnie Slater and director Sam Kelly’s first feature film, One for the Road. Billed as New Zealand’s first musical drama, it’s slated to shoot early next year and follows the fortunes of a struggling, small town band.
“We’re thrilled to have Guillermo’s support,” Slater says. “He has not done any event of this kind in New Zealand before and it’s a coup to have attracted him to headline our fundraiser and help promote our cause. More..
TheOneRing.net would like to send Happy Birthday wishes to Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro! If you’d like to send along your well wishes, take a moment to post on the thread that has already been started in our forums. (He visits them quite often!) Guillermo del Toro was born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara Jalisco, Mexico, which makes him only 45 as he moves into his second year of ‘Hobbit’ film development.
Geoff Boucher writes: This week we’re taking a look at four major trilogies from this decade that are looking to add a fourth film despite substantial challenges — not least among those challenges the skepticism of moviegoers who may wonder if some of these Hollywood vehicles are running on empty.
The story so far: Director Peter Jackson’s majestic and magical interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic is arguably the gold standard now for fantasy-film franchises. The “Rings” trilogy piled up a staggering $2.92 billion in worldwide box office (plus more than $3 billion in DVD and others ancillary sales) and also pulled off a magic trick that has eluded the “Star Wars” or “Harry Potter” franchises — it cast a spell over voters in the marquee Oscar categories of best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay. More..
From Joe Utichi at rottentomatoes.com: Sir Ian McKellen is spending the week at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, where he was last night presented with a special Donostia Award in recognition of his career as an actor. RT was in town to catch the presentation, and earlier in the day we sat down with McKellen to discuss the award and his work. Of course, as Guillermo del Toro readies to direct The Hobbit, which will see McKellen pull on the cloak and hat of Gandalf the wizard for the first time in seven years, we couldn’t help but look to the future and find out how things were going with the project. In fact it was McKellen who raised the wizard’s name before we asked, rather controversially declaring to RT, “I don’t want to play Gandalf again.” But before a million Rings fans cry out in terror at the thought of another thesp stepping into the role, McKellen was actually discussing the risk of typecasting the wake of a big success. “If you play a part that gets an awful lot of attention,” he explained, “forever after you’re being asked by directors to play the same part in their movie. But I played the best wizard, and I’m happy to revisit him, which I shall do in The Hobbit with Guillermo del Toro.” More..
From kristinthompson.net: Guillermo del Toro has agreed to help out a struggling team of filmmakers by participating in a fundraising event. The film is Roots, Rock and Harmony, to be directed by local director Bonnie Slater. The event will be billed as “An Evening with Guillermo del Toro,” though also onstage will be Jonathan King, director of the horror film Black Sheep (a fun, gory film in the early Peter Jackson mode) and the upcoming fantasy adventure Under the Mountain (due for a December 10 release in New Zealand). This Q&A event is scheduled for November 11 at the Paramount Theatre in Wellington. That’s a classic old movie theater on Courtney Place, the wide street familiar to many, since it ends at the Empire Theatre and was covered with a red carpet for the world premiere of The Return of the King. More..
Disney Teams Up With Acclaimed Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro to Create Animated Features With Chills and Thrills Under the New Label ‘Disney Double Dare You’
ANAHEIM, Calif., Sept. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The Walt Disney Studios, in collaboration with acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (”Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Hobbit”), is launching a new production label called Disney Double Dare You (DDY), to create new animated films full of chills and thrills for audiences of all ages, it was announced today at the D23 Expo by Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. All films will be produced under the guidance of del Toro, who originated the concept and the design of DDY and who will also direct certain projects. The first project in development for the new label is called “Trollhunters,” an original del Toro story which he will produce. More..Read the rest of this entry »
DragonCon, one of the best fantasy and science fiction events in the world, concluded Monday in Atlanta, Georgia and while concluded, it will not be forgotten.
The convention, that gathers fans from the far reaches of the globe, is likely the last one before filming begins on Guillermo del Toro’s “The Hobbit,” and discussion and anticipation for the forthcoming pair of films adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s book was a definite part of the landscape of the annual convention. Read the rest of this entry »
What exactly is going on with the two-part adaptation of The Hobbit? The world seems to be holding its breath in anticipation, including us, but as the calendar turned to November, we turned to a trusted rock-solid inside source and found a dragon’s treasure of updates. 
From 
TheOneRing.net would like to send Happy Birthday wishes to Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro! If you’d like to send along your well wishes, take a moment to post on the thread that has already been started in our forums. (He visits them quite often!) Guillermo del Toro was born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara Jalisco, Mexico, which makes him only 45 as he moves into his second year of ‘Hobbit’ film development. 
From Joe Utichi at 
From 
DragonCon, one of the best fantasy and science fiction events in the world, concluded Monday in Atlanta, Georgia and while concluded, it will not be forgotten.
