Guillermo del Toro posted some updates on the progress of the Lord of the Rings prequel saga, The Hobbit, in the forums of The One Ring, which may alleviate fears that have been brewing about the new epic’s shooting schedule.
Del Toro, who’s living in New Zealand to direct the Peter Jackson-produced two-movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s first published book in Middle-earth, started the post by saying that Jackson is finishing up the publicity tour for The Lovely Bones. He went on to reveal:
About ONLY 3 actors returning: I think the emphasis on “only” is what slant the news the wrong way. I cannot imagine Gollum being played by anyone but Andy and in the second script there is still much in discussion to lock everything for now. Both PJ and I chime in on things “as they are at the moment” and, of course, things change.
I, for one, understand where Peter’s coming from since 30% of my Strain tour questions, Hellboy II, Orphanage promotion questions, etc, etc where about the Hobbit. At different time we have been closer in locking on a piece of casting or hoping to get a script delivered, etc and things simply changed as we went along. So, don’t etch this in stone or anything we both have said in the past, in stone since we communicate what we can when the window of exposure to the press and fans happens.
The director also said the crew continues to scout and design until they get an official green light from the studio.
Regarding potential issues at Warner Bros.:
Is there any trouble brewing with WB? Not at all. All I can say is that they reacted to our delivered script with great delight and we have been receiving strong support in our development.
Smaug is being animation tested, we are editing the previs, doing final selections on Dwarven War Artifacts and Gear and starting many fabrication tests for armies, prosthetics and wardrobes, etc.
Del Toro says he plans to be less and less in the public eye as he prepares the “two Behemoths”, as he called them, saying he’ll do very limited, if any, promotion for Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (the Troy Nixey-directed horror remake he produced) or The Fall (the 2nd Strain Series book), but said that he would “drop in as much as possible, as always”.