General

‘The Hobbit’ back in its hole

Director Guillermo Del Toro quits

Even in the usual course of events there’s little in filmmaking as time consuming as converting a JRR Tolkien novel. After two years and hundreds of painstakingly designed monster costumes for The Hobbit, Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro has suddenly quit, complaining about endless delays in getting his eagerly-awaited film green-lit. In a move that sent a shockwave through the ranks of “Middle Earthers” and was greeted with dismay by his own fans, Del Toro said he reluctantly decided to step down after growing tired of the continued uncertainty about when The Hobbit will begin shooting, and the future of the studio that will release it. Since 2008, Del Toro has enjoyed a nomadic lifestyle comparable to that of Bilbo Baggins, commuting every week from his home in Los Angeles to New Zealand, where Peter Jackson is making a two-part film version of The Hobbit after producing the Lord Of The Rings. But although Del Toro has finished work co-writing a script, and has helped design many of the sets and costumes, the film is unable to get itself off the ground until its studio, MGM, can resolve financial issues that has left it $3.7 billion in debt. “In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life,” Del Toro told a Tolkien fan website www.theonering.net. “After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures.” His resignation increases the likelihood of the two films failing to be ready in time for their supposed release dates of December 2012 and December 2013, leaving a hole in the film industry’s finances for those years. (The last installment of Lord Of The Rings, released in 2003, made $1.1bn.)

The Independent

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