Guillermo del Toro by Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com
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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Peter Jackson by Pierre Vinet/New Line
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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Having graced two of the blockbusteriest trilogies of all time, Orlando Bloom is out to prove his acting chops by making his West End debut in a revival of the 1969 drama Celebration, says Variety, to bow as early as July.... The epic staging of Lord of the Rings — a flop in Toronto last year — inexplicably begins previews in London on May 19, says Playbill.com. Hey, if things don't work out for Bloom's other project.... Per London's Daily Mail, ITV hopes to cast a staging of Saturday Night Fever via a reality series.... Jerry "The Beav" Mathers is the patriarch in Broadway's Hairspray starting June 5. — Reporting by Raven Snook
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Harsh words uttered by New Line cochairman Bob Shaye in an interview with Sci Fi Wire appear to have all but nixed any chance for Lord of the Rings auteur Peter Jackson to helm the Hobbit trilogy. With a nod to Jackson's lawsuit against New Line, which seeks to sort out a financial anomaly born of an audit of the original LOTR film, Shaye said, "I don't care about Peter Jackson anymore. He wants to have another $100 million or $50 million, whatever he's suing us for. He thinks we owe him something after we've paid him over a quarter of a billion dollars. Cheers, Peter."In response, says Reuters, Jackson issued a statement saying he only seeks to hold New Line "to its contractual obligations and promises. It is regrettable that Bob has chosen to make it personal."
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Question: In your Nov. 1 column, you said that Crossing Jordan was casting a character described as a sexy, funny and slightly cocky cop. Care to give us an update?
Answer: I hear an offer has been made to (major-ass prattle alert!) Lord of the Rings' Viggo Mortensen.
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The Hollywood Reporter's fifth-annual accounting of the biz's best-paid actresses names Nicole Kidman this year's biggest breadwinner, earning as much as $17 million per film. This marks the first time that Julia Roberts, MIA from the live-action circuit this year, didn’t top the list. Rounding out the top 10 were Reese Witherspoon, Renée Zellweger, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz (at $15 million each), Halle Berry ($14 mil), Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie ($10 mil), Kirsten Dunst ($8 to 10 mil), and Jennifer Aniston ($8 million).Meanwhile, I'm reading in the Post that Sean Connery turned down hundreds of millions to play Gandalf in the LOTR trilogy. Someone alert NOW.
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Talk about a stretch! Everyone loved Pippin, the brave, innocent hobbit played by Billy Boyd in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. So what did the Scottish actor choose for his next role? A voice-over gig as a sexually confused killer doll in the gory slasher comedy Seed of Chucky. His follow-up to that one is On a Clear Day, a heart-warmer about a couple of guys who try swimming the English Channel (due out next year). Meanwhile, since Return of the King's special extended DVD is out this week, TV Guide Online decided to ring up Boyd back in his hometown of Glasgow and reminisce about those infamous high jinks on the Shire set.
TV Guide Online: The LOTR set sounds a lot like a boys' boarding school, what with all the pranks and horsing around.Billy Boyd: It was all of that and more — just the most fun place to be. There were stages we went through. We played video games in someone's trailer all the time, then it was
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