It has been said and shown a thousand times. : At Hitek, we are big fans of fantasy. Not long ago, we offered you a long subject on the reasons which explain the failure of the Hobbit. To complete this subject, we are returning today in more detail on what should have happened. be these films. Indeed, before being directed by Peter Jackson, the Hobbit saga should have been released. Be directed by Guillermo Del Toro.
Why Guillermo Del Toro had to direct The Hobbit
Despite his love for Tolkien lore and the success of theLord of the Ringstrilogy, Peter Jackson always explained not really being interested by the idea of adapting The Hobbit by Tolkien, which describes events taking place during the youth of Bilbo the Hobbit. However after the success of the first trilogy, on their side the studios really wanted to exploit the world of the film. Jackson therefore agrees to produce, but not to direct, an adaptation of Tolkien's novel The Hobbit.Knowing that this book is much closer to a fairy tale than The Lord of the Rings, he wishes to entrust the project to a director more sensitive to this kind.
In April 2008, while he began promoting his very successfulHellboy 2, Guillermo Del Toro was officially announced ; as the director of the prequels to Lord of the Rings: The Hobbit. The news is greeted with enthusiasm by fantasy fans, boththe director has already proven his love of the genre and his ability to à approach it in an original way. Films like Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy 2, and even beyond. its way Blade 2 draws on the genre to offer films that stand out from the mainstream Hollywood crowd. After the announcement, Del Toro left to work on the project in New Zealand.
The Hobbit seen by Guillermo del Toro
< p>Know how to what would have looked like? The Hobbit version of Del Toro is particularly complicated.Del Toro's work, which was partly considered the intellectual property of former director Peter Jackson, had to start from scratch in just a few months.. There are therefore few traces of Del Toro's research, despite this. his very long stay in New Zealand. In fact, you will find in the following lines as many proven elements and supported by extracts from interviews as a few known elements, but also the relay of persistent rumors. For example, we know with certainty thatthe director ofThe Shape of Waterhad already created a film. started à supervise the creation of numerous settings and creatures. Del Toro had a keen vision; him from this universe. One of the important elements is that he wanted to respect the side of society. “ fairy tale » fromThe Hobbit,which has a unique tone. relativelydistant of the very serious trilogy of Lord of the Rings.
The Hobbit was at the origin intended for to children. The book had been thought so that we could read one chapter per evening, and Del Toro wanted to maintain this tone. childish, or at least partly. One of the ideas of this adaptation was to talk about the loss of innocence. Bilbo would have been a more carefree character confronted with à every step of the journey increasingly horrific and violent elements.
Del Toro would also have drawn parallels with the First World War, in which Tolkien fought. Del Toro had already used the confrontation between the fantastic and the harshness of of very real conflicts to bring to life strange and tragic fables about children who lose their innocence (The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth)< /em>. About this narrative arc, Del Toro declared to time:
We are first faced with; a world that is slightly more golden at the beginning, a very innocent environment, then the film must take you from a moment marked through a form of purity, towards a reality of darker throughout the film, but while keeping the spirit of the book.
The Hobbit in 2 films and not 3
Conscious of the richness of the lore and the challenge of being able to linkThe HobbittoLord of the Ringshomogeneously, Guillermo del Toro wanted from the start to transform the short novel into 2 films. Although the Mexican director wanted to mark The Hobbit of his paw, he is also a great admirer of Jackson's work and therefore wants to pay tribute to him. Thusthe last part of the diptych would certainly have marked an evolution in tone and styleto help create a harmonious stylistic transition with Peter Jackson's trilogy. webp” type=”image/webp”>
The first film would have contained most of the novel's story, exploring Bilbo's journey and adventure with the dwarves. introduced in the first film, just like the orc who opposed the dwarves (Bolg or Azog). Del Toro also believes that by engaging in the atmosphere of a fairy tale, the first film could more easily have a more realistic tone. different from that of the second.Its objective is also to modify the aesthetics of this first part compared to the previous one. that of the trilogy The Lord of the Rings.
During its long research work, he brings together sketches from old editions of the novel and fan paintings of Tolkien's works to draw inspiration and nourish his first episode. For example,Del Toro wants to change the appearance of the Wargs in his films.His idea is to give them a more fanciful and less rational appearance than those created by Jackson. The idea of the director of Pan's Labyrinth is closer to certain wolf-demons present in Norse mythology.
The second film would have been a transition,allowing the background and agrave; the form to marry best with Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. The team's artists were thus instructed to mix Guillermo's architecture and creatures with those of Jackson, gently but surely anchoring the story in a universe more familiar to fans. .The film would have borrowed from to the appendices of the Lord of the Rings novels to tell what happened in the novels. betweenThe HobbitandThe Community of the Ring. In all likelihood, we would have followed the quest of Gandalf and the White Council a lot, who were worried about seeing evil taking hold in the city. Dol Guldur.
As for where in the story the first film would have ended, Del Toro said that it was thought of as a matter of coursefor the spectators and explained it as follows:
We thought; our choice based on the evolution of the relationship between Bilbo, Thorin but also all the dwarves. There is a passage in the novel that marks a logical point of development in this relationship. There is a moment in the book where something is accomplished that allows us to say, 'Okay, let's move on. what's next after that.'
Based on this statement, we can assume that the first film would have followed Bilbo, Gandalf and the dwarves to through the Misty Mountains, up to Beorn's house, right next door the edge of the Black Forest. Indeed, after this passage, Bilbo gained the admiration of the dwarves for escaping from the alone from the goblins' den. It's there that Gandalf takes leave of the group and decides to go to Dol Guldur,leaving Bilbo to fend for himself with the dwarves now that the group seems more united.
A Hobbit closer to Tolkien's writings
Del Toro is apparently firmly committed to à keeping the film's story very close to the novel.His two planned films would have followed Tolkien's writings. For Guillermo Del Toro, colors have a deep meaning and his films also stand out from the run-of-the-mill desaturated films. Hollywood, with a deluge of colors which nourish each shot of his cinema. GoldColors are extremely important elements of Tolkien's Hobbit. For example, each dwarf has a very distinct color and we speak of Gandalf the Gray or even the White Council. For his part,Del Toro wishes to use subtle changes of color throughout his narrationto mark the psychic evolution of the hero and the evolution of the hero's evolution. story.
It was also important to illustrate well more clearly the strength of the bond between Bilbo and Thorin and to highlight each dwarf more. Thus, one of the actors explained having accepted the this film because it was sold to him asa sort of « The 12 bastards go to kill a dragon. On the other hand, worried about Due to the lack of female characters in the film,Del Toro, like Peter Jackson, wanted the creation of the character of the elf warrior, Tauriel.However, Tauriel would have been, like Bard, a character who has her own quest and who does not come into contact with the company and Bilbo for long.
A very original Smaug
It may be ;be the element of the film which would have really posed the most problemsin Del Toro's diptych. Indeed, he really wants to have carte blanche on Smaug and create a completely original dragon with an approach never before seen anywhere. However, the descriptions made by the team creative ideas can leave you perplexed, to say the least.
Del Toro really wants to create his own original design for the dragon in the film.He wants the eyes to be difficult to see. locate, hidden in a huge horned head. The idea is to be able to add tension to moments where the tension is present. Bilbo sneaks up close to him. Smaug's mouth must be very human, expressive and articulate, with some fine, silky spines almost resembling a horse. fur/mustache.The belly appears slippery and soft, further highlighting its vulnerabilityand why Bard finally arrives at defeat him.
However, Del Toro is apparently aware that the dragon design will be controversial.But Del Toro's desire remained to create something completely new and strange that could go against the conventional idea that the public had of the Western dragon. The director also admitted, later, that he could have felt a certain unease and tension with this design.within the rest of the team and that this design could have changed again. Since then Del Toro has created Pacific Rim and it is not impossible that some of the kaiju present in the film come from research into Smaug's appearance.
Azog or Bolg
The presence of Azog in the role of the main orc who opposes the enemy. the company is a highly contested choiceby Tolkien fans. In the book, Azog has been dead for a long time and it is his son Bolg who has promised to avenge him and opposes the heroes. Thestory of the creation of Azog and Bolg in Peter Jackson's film is a real puzzleand we talk about it in more detail in this article dedicated to it. à Azog. However, whichever orc Del Toro chooses,he is at his disposal. I'm almost certain that the idea of making it a penguin, with a metal prosthesis to be used. one of its arms comes from the director of Chronos,who is completely obsessed with by this idea. We can also see an armed troll. used a mechanical arm inHellboy 2, the film that Del Toro directed. just before starting to working onThe Hobbit. And characters equipped with strange arms dot his entire filmography.
A Battle of the Five Armies Much shorter
Like < strong>Tolkien was a veteran of the First World War, he hated depictions of war.In his children's story, he did everything to avoid presenting an epic or entertaining war. Instead, the main character, Bilbo, is completely unconscious during the entire battle, not knowing anything about it. major events only after the fact. And Del Toro is totally seduced by this idea. Despite studio pressure to show a major battle scene, for Del Toro, the battle must be a minimal part of the story.
Del Toro wishes to avoid the battle, but aware that it still had to be depicted in images, the director left a lot of room for change. the creative part of this scene takes place. Peter Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh.He thus explained: It was noted that Jackson and Walsh had a lot of childish energy between them, and talked enthusiastically late into the night about different ideas for martial choreography, creatures, and stage set-up. ;insane action scenes, taking full advantage of what Del Toro describes as “a very well-funded sandbox.”
As with Smaug, it is not certain that Del Toro could have really followed through with his idea of downplaying the importance of the battle in the film. In this type of large production, the action scenes have an important place in highlighting and promoting the film. But his more measured and less enthusiastic approach might have served the film welland would surely have taken up less space than in the final result where The Battle of the Five Armies represents more than an hour of almost non-stop action.
The return of the community of the Ring
Guillermo Del Toro had planneda somewhat different casting from the one we discovered in the final version of Peter Jack< strong>son.The director ofBlade 2originally surrounded himself with some of his favorite actors. Ron Perlman as Smaug, Brian Blessed as Thorin or Beorn, Ian McShane as a dwarf, and Doug Jones as Thranduil, but he also insisted that Ian Holm reprise his role as Bilbo. Even more surprising, the director wants all the actors from Jackson's trilogy to reprise their roles.
He obviously wants the films, especially the first one, to be very different from the original trilogy, but he thinks that would be a form of injustice to the fans if there weren't a few familiar references or even a minimum of fan service. The appendages included the end of Return of the King details the sixty years between the events of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, so some of these details like the awakening of Mount Doom and Sauron's return to Mordor might have provided some insight into how each of the future members of the Fellowship of the Ring would react.and the place where it was before the first episode of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Peter Jackson being a big fan of Doctor Who, the only idea was The Del Toro casting member that Peter Jackson ultimately kept is Sylvester McCoy as Brown Radagast.
Why Guillermo Del Toro's The Hobbit didn't get made
For over a year and in close collaboration with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, Del Toro wrote, rewrote and worked tirelesslyon the artistic direction of the project. Problem: If the fans and Peter Jackson are enthusiastic about it? The financiers are much less keen on the idea of seeing Del Toro direct the film. In the eyes of the studios, The Lord of the Rings is now an inseparable brand of Peter Jackson. On the other hand, if Del Toro's films are all successes, s critics, they are far from being great public successes. However, At that moment, the M.G.M which produced the film faced a crisis. big financial problems.Behind the scenes, pressure is building to eject Del Toro.
As of November 2009, the script is still not validatedand the production schedule has been revised. rejected à 2010. In September 2010, a major earthquake shakes New Zealand and the film will be further delayed. For his part,Del Toro is seething and has the impression that he is losing opportunitiesto carry out many other projects that he dreams of putting into images. It was ultimately the director of Avatar, James Cameron, who convinced his friend Del Toro to abandon the project. Cameron promised to Del Toro that he will support his project to produce an adaptation of Lovecraft's The Mountains of Hallucinations with Tom Cruise in the lead. Del Toro abandons The Hobbit, The Mountains of Hallucinations will never be produced and Peter Jackson finds himself forced to make a film he did not want do, as we explained in detail in this article.
