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Guillermo Del Toro Talks The Hobbit
On casting and designing Smaug
12 November 2008 | Written by Chris Hewitt | Source: Coming Soon |
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We haven’t heard much from Guillermo del Toro recently, with the great director keeping his head down at the moment so he can work hard on his forthcoming adaptation of The Hobbit.
But he showed up in LA last night at a special do to launch the Region 1 DVD of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and our pals at Comingsoon.net grabbed him for a few quick words on the status of his take on Tolkien.
“Literally, like every week, what you discover writing the two movies, writing the two stories, it changes. So, every week there's a discovery, and anything we say this week would be contradicted next week,” he said.
Ah. But he was confident enough to speak about some of his plans for the movie’s effects, which will see an increase in practical elements. “We want to do a muscle-driven, radio-controlled suits for a couple of things,” he revealed. “I already started that with Wink [the giant ape-like troll] in Hellboy II. Wink was pushed as far as we could within the time limits and the budget limits of the movie and we're going to take what we learned and apply it.”
Del Toro also talked about what he sees as the single biggest challenge of The Hobbit: the villainous dragon, Smaug.
“Smaug is the creature in The Hobbit,” he said. “The way Tolkien wrote it, already, is magnificent. It's already a fantastic character. In my mind, what we're going to attempt on the design of this creature and the creation of this creature needs to push the envelope beyond anything you've ever seen on that kind of creature.”
Such as…?
“Smaug has certain characteristics that make him unique already. I am bursting at the seams about spilling the beans, but I won't because I would be shot."
Well, we don’t want that, Guillermo. To read more from the Mexican director on the current status of casting and whatnot, do pop over to Comingsoon and tell ‘em Empire says hello. They'll know what it means.
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| the voice of Smaug | Tom Baker? More
Posted by dave1159 at 01:19 on 16 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | the voice of Smaug | Tom Baker? More
Posted by dave1159 at 01:19 on 16 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | the voice of Smaug | Tom Baker? More
Posted by dave1159 at 01:18 on 16 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | x | Can't see how to delete, sorry. More
Posted by Youshouldberunning at 15:41 on 14 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | x | x More
Posted by Youshouldberunning at 15:41 on 14 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | x | x
More
Posted by Youshouldberunning at 15:40 on 14 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | Ha | McAvoy as Smaug would be much, much worse than Neeson as Aslan. Although McAvoy would have to play every character in the entire film for The Hobbit to be quite as bad as the first Narnia.
I am hearing Christopher Lee as Smaug, but that may get confusing...Daniel DL is a good shout. More
Posted by Youshouldberunning at 15:40 on 14 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | Oops | Bloody thing.
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Posted by Youshouldberunning at 15:38 on 14 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | Ha - Mcavoy as the dragon! Almost as bad as Liam Neeson as Aslan.....
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Posted by Letattz at 13:55 on 14 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | bad spelling - sorry. McAvoy as Bilbo maybe - thought you meant as Smaug! More
Posted by PETERJADAVISON at 13:25 on 13 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | Please not McAvoy - how wet would that dragon be?! Ron Pearlman would do quite a good job - suitably nasty without being over dramatic. Or if you want to go the other extream, Brian Blessed!!!! The film would make no sense, but would have a lot more shouting! More
Posted by PETERJADAVISON at 13:23 on 13 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | james mcavoy would be a great choice for a young bilbo....
Russell Crowe? If he gets anywhere near this film then all that is good and holy in this world will be utterly ruined. Forever.
Antony Hopkins? No way. Dull as ditchwater. Sounds like my Grandad.
We need a voice that is capable of seduction and murder. He wouldn't do it, but I'd love someone like Daniel Day Lewis. More
Posted by Letattz at 13:20 on 13 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | Additional Video Statement | Here's del Toro talking to a German film mag:
http://www.widescreen-vision.de/aid,666798/EXCLUS IVE_Del_Toro_talks_THE_HOBBIT/
(article and clip in English) More
Posted by Moviesteve at 09:10 on 13 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | That old chestnut... | ...Whilst imdb.com isn't the most reliable source in film world, it's interesting to note that one Mr J McAvoy only has one film coming up on his slate - for 2010 - and that's an animated voice job. Significant??? More
Posted by Halfling at 08:53 on 13 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | Crowe no . . . . | Sorry having Russell Crowe voice smaug would be like having Tom Cruise play Biblo. Far from the right choice, i mean Smaug is a intelligent creature, they should go with that. Anthony Hopkins gets my vote.
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Posted by take1 at 21:40 on 12 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | RE: | L: yodaami
Russell Crowe to voice Smaug
hmm...with it being GDT directing, my money is on Ron Perlman doing the voice.
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Posted by boove at 21:14 on 12 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | Russell Crowe to voice Smaug More
Posted by yodaami at 20:44 on 12 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | Should be just as much a classic as the trilogy | Wink was awesome in Hellboy 2 and the Rings trillogy could have done with more practical effects than it's reliance mainly on CGI. Although, the mighty Balrog in the first and begging of the second moivie were the best I've ever seen (even more impresive than Gollum).
His sensitifites should makes this a perfect companion piece to Peter Jacksons Ring trilogy. More
Posted by Taz69 at 17:29 on 12 November 2008 | Report This Post | | | | | |
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