Its officially official After months of rumored talks previously reported here Guillermo del Toro has signed on to direct The Hobbit the next installment in the Lord of the Rings series as well as its sequel says Variety The director is diving in to his new project full-on Del Toro is moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work with LOTR director Peter Jacksons production teams ostensibly to learn the ways of Middle Earth at the heart of it all He also faces a huge amount of material to tackle as both films which hes shooting back-to-back will cover a 60-year period starting where The Fellowship of the Ring left off Are you pleased with the final directorial choice Had someone else in mind Or have you been cheering on del Toro all along Anna Dimond
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The Lord of the Rings trilogy made a reported $6 billion worldwide, but the estate of the franchise's creator, J.R.R. Tolkien, claims that they have not gotten their fair cut of the gross profits.Tolkien's estate, a charity known as the Tolkien Trust, along with the books' publisher, HarperCollins, on Monday filed a lawsuit against New Line Cinema, which released the films. The suit claims that the studio was obligated to pay 7.5 percent of gross receipts to the plaintiffs, who are suing for $150 million. Plus, the plaintiffs want the right to put the kibosh on any of New Line's rights to make other films based on Tolkien books, including The Hobbit — for which the studio already has a two-picture prequel in the works. And just when we thought Peter Jackson's squabble with New Line was The Hobbit's only hurdle.... — Anna DimondRelated: • Hobbit Forming: Peter Jackson to Lord Over Prequel
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Following much legal tangling and a small degree of name-calling, Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have settled all litigation relating to the Lord of the Rings trilogy and reached an agreement to bring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit to the big screen. "I'm very pleased that we've been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line," Jackson says in a statement to the AP. "We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth."As was done with the three Lord of the Rings films Jackson helmed, a pair of Hobbit movies will be filmed simultaneously. Production is set to begin in 2009, with the releases coming in 2010 and 2011. While Jackson (with Fran Walsh) will executive-produce the pics, a director has yet to be named.
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Question: Did you ever get a chance to check out George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire book series? I was really excited a few months back when it was announced that the series was being adapted for TV on HBO. Now that I've seen Deadwood, I'm totally sure that this can work on HBO, and it seems like HBO could use a new quality show. Now that Rome and The Sopranos are gone, I'm seriously thinking about canceling my subscription until A Song of Ice and Fire starts.
Answer: You may be in for a long wait. I haven't heard anything about this project since the initial announcement, but now that I've read the first three volumes — devoured them, actually, is I think the more appropriate term — I can only imagine how long it will take to script, then film, such an epic series. HBO didn't mention this during its recent TCA session, but that's hardly surprising if it's still in the early stages of development. It does sound like a perfect fit, doesn't it? The characters are so vivid and
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In honor of the Tonys, airing Sunday, June 10, on CBS, Live with Regis and Kelly will showcase a slew of Broadway babies next week. Monday brings a Spring Awakening; Tuesday finds David Hyde Pierce hawking Curtains; on Wednesday, Raúl Esparza makes for great Company; Thursday Christine Ebersole brightens Grey Gardens; and on Friday Mary Poppins goes "Supercalifragilisticexpidalidocious".... Cheers star Rhea Perlman makes her West End debut in Boeing-Boeing this summer, as per Playbill.com.... Broadway.com reports that the American classic Gone with the Wind is being turned into a British musical, set to hit the stage in spring 2008.... An actor in the problem-plagued production of London's Lord of the Rings was injured by a piece of hydraulic stage machinery. He was treated with medicine, not magic. — Reporting by Raven Snook
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