As fans know, Bilbo Baggins is the clue finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. He was chosen for the lucky number. He comes from the end of a bag, but no bag goes over him. He is the Barrel-rider. Plus, we know that soon he’ll be the centerpiece of one of the biggest big-screen fantasy epics of all-time.
But what does he mean to Guillermo Del Toro? MTV’s Movie Blog provided him an opportunity to discuss exactly that topic:
“The most salient virtue of Bilbo is a very relatable, basic decency and honesty – the fact that here’s a guy who’s going to do the right thing,” Del Toro said of the titular character in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. “Bilbo is a good-hearted man, and the honesty of Bilbo is in direct contrast to the greed of Smaug, which looms large in the entire narrative, but also in the newly acquired greed and pride of Thorin, who becomes intoxicated with power and gold.”
There’s more to read and includes a video on MTV.com.
Forging Dragons(Or Most Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Dragons (Or At Least a Certain Amount)
John Howe writes: A new book coming out is always fun, generally as it means the editors involved are happy to coax me from my lair to go sign copies in some far-flung clime.*
Future “Hobbit” director Guillermo del Toro and former “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson sat down with a world-wide internet audience and answered a lot more than the announced “20 questions” this weekend.
Hosted by Weta, there were a lot of minor details and significant confirmations and revelations about the gigantic production that will yield two “Hobbit” related movies, one in 2011 and the second in 2012.
Peter Jackson said,
“2009 will be dedicated to pre-production on both movies and 2010 will be the year we shoot both films back to back. Post productin follows one film at a time with The Hobbit being released Dec(ember) 2011, and F2 (film two) release(d) Dec(ember) 2012.”
Recently, TheOneRing.net featured an essay on the challenges and opportunities faced by Guillermo del Toro and WETA workshops in brining the Magnificent Smaug to movie screens in the upcoming Hobbit film. The fan-friendly director has long been open to fans and can be found posting at DelToroFilms.com”. Del Toro, or “GDT” as he is affectionately already known on the TORn message boards, responded to the thread, giving a healthy discussion an extra shot of energy. Continue reading “The Dragon Solution: GDT shares his thoughts”
Stories of dragons are as old as the written word and probably a lot older. To keep things inside the J.R.R. Tolkien realm, “Beowulf”, one of the oldest written stories of Europe features not only the monstrous Grendel but his serpentine Mother. Ancient biblical writings allude to the great serpent or dragon while global mythology has oversized lizard creatures popping up so consistently that some have suggested there must be some common shared memory or primitive survival instinct built into humanity to cause us to tell our tribal stories about such a monstrosity. Continue reading “The Dragon Problem: What challenges await GDT and WETA?”
As fans know, Bilbo Baggins is the clue finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. He was chosen for the lucky number. He comes from the end of a bag, but no bag goes over him. He is the Barrel-rider. Plus, we know that soon he’ll be the centerpiece of one of the biggest big-screen fantasy epics of all-time.
