MTV Movies scored a great coup today by getting an interview with soon-to-be ‘Hobbit’ director Guillermo del Toro where he addressed all kinds of concerns including who to cast as Bilbo, using as many original “Lord Of The Rings” actors as possible and responding to the recent Salon story that centered on a quote he said two years ago about not being into “fantasy” films that threw a little dig at the LOTR series.
“I was never into heroic fantasy. At all,” del Toro admitted during a 2006 Cannes interview. “I don’t like little guys and dragons, hairy feet, hobbits — I’ve never been into that at all. I don’t like sword and sorcery. I hate all that stuff.”
Seems ironic to hire a director that “hates all that stuff,” for “The Hobbit,” no? But del Toro says that was then, this is now.
“I wasn’t [into fantasy then]. I completely gravitated towards horror. For whatever reason, I never hooked into sword and sorcery. I really rediscovered fantasy through my love of filmmakers as a filmmaker. Something kind of popped and jelled. I now can empathize with one side of the fantasy genre without ever wandering into lubricated musclemen with giant swords. ‘The Hobbit’ occupies a particular seat in fantasy that is irreplaceable. They can dredge up old cadavers in my closet. I’m not running for president. I’m a f—ing filmmaker! I’m just trying to make the movie I want to.”
On whether Ian Holmes will return as Bilbo (it’s generally assumed since “The Hobbit” is a half century before “Fellowship of the Ring” that Holm is too old to play a younger Bilbo):
“[Holm] certainly is the paragon we aspire to. He will be involved in some manner, I’m sure. But at his age … it’s too early to tell. We are just in the early stages. It’s too early to make commitments of that sort. We prefer to let the screenplay and the way the character comes to life guide us in the casting. I have many people in mind. Anything [else] I say will be used against me in a court of law.”
Del Toro vows to cast the original LOTR actors if they’re available and willing.
“I want to be very clear about this. I am not going to recast any actor that is willing and able to work with us,” del Toro told MTV News. “It would be my hope to bring back the same actors to play the parts. The casting on the trilogy was perfect.”
As has been said many times already, the Mexican director reconfirmed that, Andy Serkis, Sir Ian McKellen, and composer Howard Shore would return for the two ‘Hobbit’ films.
MTV would like you to know (and perhaps keep the actors on the hook) that Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Sean Astin and Elijah Wood have all said at one time that they would return for “The Hobbit” if asked. Hope you guys practice what you preach cause otherwise those fans are going to rip you to shreds. Then again, del Toro couldn’t confirm if any of those characters would return and it sounds like that’s because they just don’t know and it’s too early to tell.
Those expecting more insight to the second ‘Hobbit’ sequel, will surely be disappointed as del Toro didn’t really reveal anything we didn’t already know.
“[The intervening years between “The Hobbit” and “LOTR”] is the transition from the golden years to the rise of Sauron. It’s essentially the beginning of civil war and uprisings. It’s a very interesting time. We’re going to start with ‘The Hobbit,’ in the writing process. We’ll see if we can fully contain it in one movie, which I think is perfectly possible. We’ll take it from there. We just outlined what we want out of [the second film]. We outlined what we expect to tell. It’s just plans and ideas right now.”
