Empire Magazine HOBBIT Report

Empire Magazine’s April Issue features an interview with Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro. This is the first time in a while that the two have spoke about THE HOBBIT’s progress. You can buy the issue on news stands or online, but here is a brief summary:

  • Phillippa Boyens, Fran Walsh, Jackson and Del Toro have been working on treatments, story outlines and structure for the last few months
  • Jackson and Del Toro just pitched their idea for the main story outline to Warner Brothers and it was approved
  • Now that they have WB’s approval, they will start writing the script
  • They also have people standing by to start the casting process
  • GDT has also been spending time at Weta doing research and development on creatures
  • Mike Mignola, Wayne Barlowe, John Howe and Alan Lee have all been participating in the creature design
  • They are on target for shooting March of 2010
  • The two movies will span the entire length of the book – there will be no “bridge” film. The story will not be just the journey of Bilbo and the dwarves, however. It will expand to include Gandalf’s whereabouts and some of the back story
  • THE HOBBIT will also show Sauron’s back story: how he manifests himself for the RINGS trilogy
  • Shooting the film in 3D is still under discussion. There are some concerns however that shooting it in 3D will distort the tonality set by the original trilogy

Notable Quotes:

Jackson: We do cover some of the events earlier, like Thr