Del Toro and HobbitThe Times Online reports on Guillermo Del Toro’s transition from his other projects to working on “The Hobbit:”

“I’m trying to be faithful to what I read when I was young. That’s The Hobbit I’m serving. I cannot serve a Peter Jackson film. We also hope to bridge the trilogy. We will create an expansion of what lies in the four books and in a number of appendices.”

Thanks to forum member ‘And back again’ for the link.

Voronwe the Faithful – attorney, forum member and resident advisor on the Tolkien vs. New Line lawsuit reports:

“As I predicted, New Line has filed a new demurrer to the First Amended Complaint, challenging the revamped Fraud cause of action, along with a Motion to Strike punitive damages. No hearing date yet, but I’m sure that it will be soon.”

Not up to date on the demurrers and complaints? You can find Voronwe’s previous update on the latest Tolkien Family move here and/or check out the great article Clearing up Misconceptions Regarding the Tolkien vs. New Line Lawsuit
he wrote for us in June.

Howard Shore The soaring Grand Court of the famous Philadelphia department store—home to the thunderous Wanamaker Organ—will be transformed into a magnificent concert hall on Saturday September 27.

The Philadelphia Orchestra combines its resources with those of the Wanamaker Organ, the world’s largest playing pipe organ. The organ has 28,482 pipes ranging from the size of a pencil to giants towering 37 feet tall. Performed for the first time here is Joseph Jongen’s Symphonie Concertante. One of the most famous organ-orchestra pieces, closing in a thrilling pull-out-all-the stops toccata, it was written for the Wanamaker Organ and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1926, but to date has never been played on the instrument for which it was intended. Continue reading “Shore Helps Macy’s Celebrate 150th Anniversary”

Harry SloanHarry Sloan, the MGM CEO whose many credits include helping to bring “The Hobbit” movies to the studio has signed a new three year contract to stay at the helm of the company. As many LOTR fans remember, Sloan was also insistent that Peter Jackson be involved in any future “Hobbit” related movies during a stressful period between New Line Cinema and Jackson. “To create another page in the storied history of MGM is the most exciting challenge I’ve had in my career,” said Sloan. You can read the full story in Variety.

Guillermo del ToroThe Hollywood Reporter has reported that ‘Hobbit’ director Guillermo del Toro will also be producing Miramax’s upcoming remake of ‘Afraid in the Dark:’

Guillermo del Toro and Miramax will produce a remake of the horror-thriller telefilm “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” the specialty distributor’s first big dive into genre filmmaking under president Daniel Battsek. Comic book artist-writer Troy Nixey will make his feature directorial debut with the adaptation of ABC’s 1973 cult classic.

Read the full article at HollywoodReporter.com. [Full Article]

Guillermo Del Toro Claire writes: There’s an article on Guillermo del Toro in the ‘Film Quarterly’ magazine which comes with this week’s Observer, a Sunday newspaper in the UK. It’s mostly about the designs for Hellboy, but does mention how he’ll be recording his ideas for ‘The Hobbit’. You can find it here.

For those in the UK who can get hold of a copy, there are pictures of sketches for Hellboy and the characters as they appeared on screen.

Also in the same magazine is Phillip French’s Top Ten Trilogies. Phillip French is a well-known and well-respected film critic. The Top Ten isn’t in any particular order, and if you scroll down the list on this page the Lord of the Rings trilogy is fifth in the list.