The long awaited movie adaptation of The Hobbit finally gets a director. Guillermo Del Toro, the Mexican director has been handed over the reins for the middle-earth tale preceding Lord of the Rings and its sequel. Peter Jackson made the announcement with Fran Walsh on 24th April in a press conference called by New Line Cinema. Jackson who directed all three movies of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, will be acting as executive producer on this one.

It is reported that Del Toro will be moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work with Jackson and his production teams. He’ll direct the two films back to back. Both movies are being co-produced and co-financed by New Line Cinema and MGM. Warner Bros. is distributing in the US and MGM is handling international markets. It is expected that the LOTR scripting team of Jackson, Walsh and Philippa Boyens will collaborate with Del Toro for the screenplay.

LOTR garnered critical acclaim and popularity among the masses in equal measure. And it’s going to take a gifted director to carry forward Peter Jackson’s vision and to do justice to the expectations of fans.

Del Toro has been long known for his fascination with the surreal and dark-themed fantasies. His last venture was Pan’s Labyrinth, a mesmerizing fairy tale set against the backdrop of the Spanish resistance during the Second World War. He started off with horror features such as Cronos, Mimic and The devil’s backbone. Though the last one is also a study of shattered childhood. His forays into mainstream Hollywood have produced movies such as Blade 2, which just about passed muster and Hellboy, a good, fun comic-book adaptation. Recently he has been working on Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, scheduled to release in the summer.

Overall, his past record indicates that he could be the ideal choice for exploring the mythical history of Tolkien’s world.

(Source: Variety)

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