Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro is the latest fantasy filmmaker attached to direct New Line Cinema’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The prequel to the Lord of the Rings saga was originally to be helmed by Peter Jackson before legal issues between the filmmaker and New Line derailed the project. Having settled differences with the studio, Jackson will serve as a producer on the two Hobbit films while he honors other directorial commitments. He and Del Toro will oversee the films’ writing once the strike is over.
Written 17 years before the Lord of the Rings books, The Hobbit centers on Bilbo Baggins, who joins the wizard Gandolf and other adventurers on a quest to find a dragon’s treasure. The story will be divided into two film installments to be shot back-to-back with budgets exceeding $150 million. Principal photography is slated to begin in 2009.
With Jackson unable to direct, New Line needed to find someone who is widely embraced by fans of genre filmmaking to helm The Hobbit. Spider-Man director Sam Raimi was rumored to be involved before Oscar nominee del Toro entered the picture. Del Toro, who produced the acclaimed Spanish ghost story, The Orphanage, is currently finishing the superhero sequel Hell Boy: The Golden Army, which Universal will release this summer. Jackson is helming an adaptation of the novel The Lovely Bones before joining Steven Spielberg on their performance-capture series of films based on the classic Tintin comics.
