The Hollywood Reporter is saying that Guillermo del Toro is in talks to direct back-to-back installments of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit for New Line and MGM.
This is quite a substantial bit of news, even if nothing can move due to the writers’ strike, but once that is cleared up a writer will be brought aboard and the story will be fast-tracked once it’s resolved. Del Toro and Peter Jackson will oversee Hobbit‘s writing.
Principal photography for the films, which will be shot simultaneously, is tentatively set for 2009. The production budget is estimated at $150 million per film. The release of the first film is slated for 2010 and the second in 2011.
Of course, these are just early talks, but the article sounds rather confident so I have gone ahead and added del Toro to the official film pages on RopeofSilicon. Hopefully additional details will surface soon.
