BitterSweetLife

This just in: The new director of The Hobbit film, Guillermo del Toro is not a big fan of heroic fantasy in general and J.R.R. Tolkien's books in particular. FilmChat quotes a piece by Andrew O'Hehir:

First of all, hasn't anybody noticed that del Toro has repeatedly said he doesn't like Tolkien, and that he never finished reading "The Lord of the Rings"? Here's what he told me in Cannes in 2006, when I asked him about the influence of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis on his own work: "I was never into heroic fantasy. At all. I don't like little guys and dragons, hairy feet, hobbits -- I've never been into that at all. I don't like sword and sorcery, I hate all that stuff."

Let's see, he doesn't like "little guys and dragons" or hairy-footed hobbits, and "The Hobbit" would be a movie about what, exactly? Seriously, I think del Toro was speaking from the heart, and I think he's right. His aesthetic is darker, more Gothic and more grotesque than the Tolkien-via-Jackson universe; it derives more from the medieval mire of middle-European fairy tale than from the high-toned, pre-modern northern European epics Tolkien was channeling. . .

Hmmm. You think this could be a problem? Can we take the man outside now and plaster him with rotten pipe tobacco? Good thing Peter Jackson is involved--I have the impression that he appreciates Tolkien's genius.

Photo lifted from FilmChat.

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