From Joe Utichi at rottentomatoes.com: Sir Ian McKellen is spending the week at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, where he was last night presented with a special Donostia Award in recognition of his career as an actor. RT was in town to catch the presentation, and earlier in the day we sat down with McKellen to discuss the award and his work. Of course, as Guillermo del Toro readies to direct The Hobbit, which will see McKellen pull on the cloak and hat of Gandalf the wizard for the first time in seven years, we couldn’t help but look to the future and find out how things were going with the project. In fact it was McKellen who raised the wizard’s name before we asked, rather controversially declaring to RT, “I don’t want to play Gandalf again.” But before a million Rings fans cry out in terror at the thought of another thesp stepping into the role, McKellen was actually discussing the risk of typecasting the wake of a big success. “If you play a part that gets an awful lot of attention,” he explained, “forever after you’re being asked by directors to play the same part in their movie. But I played the best wizard, and I’m happy to revisit him, which I shall do in The Hobbit with Guillermo del Toro.” More..
Category: Director news
From kristinthompson.net: Guillermo del Toro has agreed to help out a struggling team of filmmakers by participating in a fundraising event. The film is Roots, Rock and Harmony, to be directed by local director Bonnie Slater. The event will be billed as “An Evening with Guillermo del Toro,” though also onstage will be Jonathan King, director of the horror film Black Sheep (a fun, gory film in the early Peter Jackson mode) and the upcoming fantasy adventure Under the Mountain (due for a December 10 release in New Zealand). This Q&A event is scheduled for November 11 at the Paramount Theatre in Wellington. That’s a classic old movie theater on Courtney Place, the wide street familiar to many, since it ends at the Empire Theatre and was covered with a red carpet for the world premiere of The Return of the King. More..
Disney Teams Up With Acclaimed Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro to Create Animated Features With Chills and Thrills Under the New Label ‘Disney Double Dare You’
ANAHEIM, Calif., Sept. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The Walt Disney Studios, in collaboration with acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Hobbit”), is launching a new production label called Disney Double Dare You (DDY), to create new animated films full of chills and thrills for audiences of all ages, it was announced today at the D23 Expo by Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. All films will be produced under the guidance of del Toro, who originated the concept and the design of DDY and who will also direct certain projects. The first project in development for the new label is called “Trollhunters,” an original del Toro story which he will produce. More.. Continue reading “For Guillermo, D = DISNEY!”
DragonCon, one of the best fantasy and science fiction events in the world, concluded Monday in Atlanta, Georgia and while concluded, it will not be forgotten.
The convention, that gathers fans from the far reaches of the globe, is likely the last one before filming begins on Guillermo del Toro’s “The Hobbit,” and discussion and anticipation for the forthcoming pair of films adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s book was a definite part of the landscape of the annual convention. Continue reading “DragonCon flies away for 2009”
Hobbit director, Guillermo del Toro, has left the following message on our message boards:
In a few days there will be a BIG announcement (big for me, at least) that is not-Hobbit related. BEFORE anyone starts wondering the usual “how does he have time?, Is this detracting form The Hobbit?” etc It is a project that started over 2 years ago, before The Hobbit and will render fruits in the mid-term, not intruding on my Hobbit duties. Rest assured. The key letter is “D”
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Sounds intriguing! We’ll update the site as soon as we know what the special announcement may be. In the meantime, take some time and join TheOneRing.net message board community! [GDT Post]
From screencrave.com: It’s been a while since we’ve seen or heard anything regarding the Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg collaboration, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. Over at the Spanish movie site Estrenosdecine, they’ve posted a new set photo featuring the two directors hard at work. From the looks of it, the pair are seriously submerging themselves in the computer generated world that they’ve created for the film. More..