Ambrose Heron of FILMdetail.com recently spoke with Guillermo del Toro about Hellboy II and they also discussed some interesting tidbits about the writing of the ‘Hobbit’ script:
I seem to have a never ending mine of reading material. I started by reading everything I could get my hands on that Tolkien wrote of Middle-earth. And then I started reading as many books as I can about Tolkien writing about Middle-earth. I want to get as familiar with the cosmology and the genealogy and the geography of that place as possible. Because for many, myself included, it has to become a real place again.
I’m very much knee deep in that – I’m knee deep in writing and throwing the long lines of the stories along with Peter, Fran and Philippa. You know the four of us are doing ‘The Beatles; and we are co-writing the screenplays. I must say its going great – we are having a blast! And I’m discovering aspects of Tolkien’s world and Middle-earth that I find fascinating and in some instances even heart-breaking and moving – in the way that they reflect, voluntarily or not, the episode of his generation. Going through WWI and the world of trenches and the abandonment and corruption of honor by greed and by brutality. This is really illuminating in how the Hobbit progresses dramatically – a tale of a Golden Age in the Shire. To a darker place at the end of the book.
Listen to the complete interview at FILMdetail.com. The ‘Hobbit’ discussion starts at approximately 4:30 point. [FILMdetail]
