Director Larry Fessenden told Arrow In The Head that he is most likely off the ORPHANAGE remake project. A difference of opinion in casting and “direction” seems to be the reason:

THE ORPHANAGE was two years of waiting. Working on the script with Guillermo was a very exciting experience, but then I got into a casting miasma and that’s where the thing is; I think they’re gonna do it another way, actually. So I think I’m out of it. Hopefully they’ll still use my script, but I’m not sure I’m directing it anymore. That’s Hollywood for ya.

That’s a shame. If true, I would prefer to see the remake produced with the screenwriters’ original vision entact.

  

TORN is “TheOneRing.net”.

Guillermo has made a few posts recently on their message boards and I thought I would share them with you:

On writing The Hobbit with Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyens:

They are so absolutely indispensable… We have a precious collaboration and they are amazingly talented and fluent and brilliant in their writing. Now, you would be surprised- some of the funniest and most tender moments come from PJ or me also- and the ladies can be quite ruthless with the character’s fates!! our collaboration is not quite gender / trait specific. What is very beautiful is that we make it a point to be together in the writing process as much as humanly possible.

It also appears GDT is immensely enjoying himself:

there are times in our lives when a gift is offered to us. This experience has been that. PJ, Fran and PB are blessings in my life. The partnership is superb but meeting people with such great hearts to go along with imagination and courage is a rare thing in this world.

Guillermo was also enamored with some fan art, created by the user grammaboodawg.

WHERE can I get my hands ona copy of that art??? ITS GORGEOUS and FUNNY!! I am strangely flattered by the portrayal!!

They are in my image folder now!! (along with images of Goblins, Smaug, Spiders etc- you must know) I am happy-

The inspiration came from a Tom Scott cartoon he did for a NZ paper in December 2003

Finally, Guillermo elaborated a bit on his cameo appearance as a creature in THE HOBBIT

I had a hand on the design of the creature and I will personally sculpt the appliances that will be applied on my face and hands. I used to sculpt the creatures for NECROPIA (my FX company) and I miss it a bit. I will have a line or two and die quickly.

Guillermo Del Toro granted TOTAL FILM an exclusive interview about the making of THE HOBBIT. The interview is posted online here. No breaking news is posted, but Guillermo offered some “flavors” of what is to come, particularly around character design. Here are the highlights:

[On Creature Design]

I said we would keep the DNA in the same gene pool as the Rings trilogy, but that we would generate a different type of character. For example, in the trilogy most of the creatures are brutish or inarticulate.

In The Hobbit, the creatures speak: Smaug has beautiful lines of dialogue; the Great Goblin has beautiful lines of dialogue; many creatures do. So we had to design them with a different approach because you are not just designing things that are scary.

I also wanted some of the monsters in The Hobbit to be majestic.

I wanted the Wargs to have a certain beauty so that you don’t have a massively clear definition: what is beautiful is good and what is ugly is not. Some of the monsters are absolutely gorgeous.

[On Smaug]

“I think one of the designs I