Hobbit Movie Shelved

[frogboy4]

DelToro has quit the Hobbit after doing every bit of preproduction he could manage from design to animatics. No film has been more ready-to-go than the Hobbit, but MGM holds a significant portion of the rights and is having trouble and they won't sign off the rights to anyone else. They even axed the next James Bond film until they sort things out.

Peter Jackson handed the film to DelToro direct while retaining producer credit due to his many other commitments with other films. The same goes for DelToro. He was set to commit 3 years to the two Hobbit films, but the reality is that it will now take over 6. That's a long time for a wildly creative person to be in a holding pattern due to corporate squabbling.

DelToro quit with a heavy heart and Jackson’s blessing. DelToro is just as specific and detailed a visionary as Jackson and basically created the entire Hobbit world blending elements from the last three films, the source material and his own special touch. He will still be creating projects with Jackson and his wife in the future.

Some of the DelToro projects on the back burner? A reimagining of Frankenstein, the Hellboy 3 final chapter and the Gris Grimly adaptation of Pinocchio using stop motion puppets created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.

It would have been great to see DelToro’s Hobbit, but MGM can eat it! An artist only has so many years to create masterpieces and it’ll be interesting to see how much passion is unleashed on whatever’s next. He must be itching to shoot a film!

 

[Frogpuppeteer]

thats a shame i was looking forward to it...but hey hellboy 3

 

[frogboy4]

I give you the back burner...

These are the several projects we know about that have been on the backburner due to del Toro landing the Hobbit and having it eat up his time while MGM gets its mess sorted. These are the exciting projects he is likely to be returning, but these tentative timelines are most definitely changed since this informatkon has been gathered. You can bet Frankenstein will top del Toro's priorities.

Hellboy 3 (undetermined release date)
Del Toro has confirmed this will be the third and contractually final chapter of cinematic Hellboy if he is to direct.

Hater (2010)
Produced by del Toro, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona and adapted from David Moody's novel involving an epidemic of random violence occurs in which ordinary people strike lethally without warning or remorse.

Champions (2010)
Del Toro hired to direct an update to the British cult sci-fi series from the 1960s involving three people whose plane crashes somewhere in Tibet where they're rescued by some mystical tribe and taught superhuman skills and abilities. When they get back to the west they're recruited into a secret agency where they fight crime and bad guys.

Saturn and the End of Days (2011)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro. The end of the world seen through the point of view of a young boy.

Pinocchio (2011)
Stop motion animated version of the Gris Grimly creepily illustrated tale with puppets created by the Jim Henson Company. The story is based on Carlos Collodi’s far more perverse and spooky 1883 original story. This will not be the Disney version.

Death: The High Cost of Living (2011)
Produced by del Toro, written and directed by Neil Gaiman based on his fable that Death takes human form once a century.

The Witches (2011)
Screen written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. Based on Roald Dahl's 1973 classic book 'The Witches' completely using stop-motion animation in contrast to the 1990 live action and live puppetry version Jim Henson worked on directed by Nicolas Roeg.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (2012)
A modern telling directed by Guillermo del Toro for Universal, but not the Keanu Reeves version that’s been in the works.

Frankenstein (2012)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro and starring Doug Jones for Universal. It will be a reinvention stemming from the Mary Shelley book. The monster will be more of a skinny, skeletal, stringy muscled version made from human spare parts, but not a hulking, dim version we’re used to seeing. Expect del Toro’s classic contraptions and wild designs.

Drood (2012)
Drood, based on a sci-fi novel by Dan Simmons, represents itself as being the actual “secret” memoirs of one Wilkie Collins, a hugely popular writer of sensationalist novels in Victorian England and a close friend and occasional collaborator of Charles Dickens. Dickens narrowly escapes death on a train and meets a spectral Dracula-like, soul-stealing character named Drood in the process of rescuing survivors.

The Orphanage (2013)
A remake of the 2007 del Toro produced, Bayona Directed Spanish film “El Ofanto” to be directed by Mark Pellington. A horror tale centered on a woman who returns to the orphanage where she was raised.

 

[Drtooth]

DelToro has quit the Hobbit after doing every bit of preproduction he could manage from design to animatics. No film has been more ready-to-go than the Hobbit, but MGM holds a significant portion of the rights and is having trouble and they won't sign off the rights to anyone else. They even axed the next James Bond film until they sort things out.

Hold it right there. There's nothing in the entertainment industry than some big company sitting its fat butt on rights on something, especially when they have no intent to make it. That's why half the stuff we want on DVD will never happen, and that's the exact same reason there was a lawsuit with Watchmen... (and I swear that's what prompted Fox to rush out that horrible Dragonball movie, buying the rights earlier in the decade). If rights lapse, and the company does nothing with them, there should be the option of selling it to someone else. I hate how Disney owns all the Fox Kids/Saban produced shows, giving us only lackluster "At least it's something" The Tick DVD's. Meanwhile Eek the Cat, Samurai Pizza Cats and a host of others sit in a box somewhere, not even knowing they have it. Of course, they did an okay job exploiting Power Rangers, until they said "Heck with it" and just remastered the older episodes and reaired them. Not that I am a PR fan, but the fanbase is big and respectable.

That said, I REALLY want Fox's option on the X-Men films to expire. The hackjob they did with Wolverine? No thank you. No thank you. And they're planning a prequel with younger Xavier and Magneto. Betchya they'll find away to make it stink someway or another.

And as for James Bond... well, Casino Royal was supposedly good, the last one was supposedly almost as bad as the last Peirce Bronsan one. At least that's what i hear, since I haven't seen either of them yet.

 

[RedPiggy]

Seriously, the fact that something related to LOTR is gonna take forever should come as no surprise. Don't get me wrong, I loved the trilogy, but let's face it ... it really WAS like what they said in Clerks 2 ... a gazillion hours of walking. I was ready to steal the ring and destroy the world just to shut them up, LOL.

 

[frogboy4]

And as for James Bond... well, Casino Royal was supposedly good, the last one was supposedly almost as bad as the last Peirce Bronsan one. At least that's what i hear, since I haven't seen either of them yet.

The Bond films were actually good. Even the worst of the Bond films have a perpetual shelf life. MGM just can't get it together enough to make a film guaranteed to rake in money. I kind of have this feeling that Disney wanted to dump Mirimax in order to buy MGM's catalog and rights. Just a wild theory.

 

[Drtooth]

I kind of have this feeling that Disney wanted to dump Mirimax in order to buy MGM's catalog and rights. Just a wild theory.

I thought they dumped Miramax to free up enough cash to buy Marvel, if that's the case.

But if MGM is having oh so much trouble financially, why not sell rights to a movie they have NO INTENTION of ever making EVER? Know what I mean? I reiterate, there is nothing worse than a company not making a movie (or releasing a DVD) because someone else doesn't want to. It's like a greedy kid that grabs the last toy truck and refuses to let anyone play with it, even though he's not actually doing anything with it, nor did he even have the intent or desire to.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Casino Royale was a great James Bond movie! Quantum of Solace probably wasn't as great of a follow-up, but I really didn't think it was all that bad. I enjoyed both pretty well and I'd love to see Daniel Craig do another James Bond movie at some point.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Oh yes- and I definitely want to see The Hobbit get made whether it's Del Toro directing or Peter Jackson or maybe Fran Walsh or whoever! (Okay- not just "whoever" necessarily- hopefully someone who will do a good job with it- but as a Lord of the Rings fan and J.R.R. Tolkien fan in general- I just want this movie to get made already- and made well.)

 

[Drtooth]

So, uh... did MGM just snatch up the license when they started making the LOTR films just to be schmucks, and they're not even doing anything with it? Just wanna get these facts straight.