Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro Hold a 'Hobbit' Online Chat
A massive transcript for you to sink your teeth into
Today at 1 PM PST WETA NZ held an online chat with Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro concerning the upcoming feature The Hobbit and it's sequel.
Jackson and Del Toro answered questions from the fans directly as well as several questions that were sent in over the past couple of weeks. Below is the transcript and I cleaned it up for spelling errors and grammar problems as much as I (and mainly Microsoft Word) was willing to do. There will still remain a few grammatical errors and what not, but I tried to clean out the mundane and I may be back to add a few pics to spruce it up a bit a little later on…
For now… Enjoy, and just so you know, the most popular questions were answered last.
Peter Jackson: Hi this is Peter here, great to talk to all of you. It is a rainy Sun morning down here in NZ, hopefully there is sun shining where you are. Over in London we have Guillermo on the other end of his computer, and he'll be coming on to say hi. A quick note, we will deal with the 20 most popular questions that have arrived over the last 2 weeks during the course of the hour, but would love to answer as many as we can from as many of you on this chat and who want to fire additional questions. So let us get underway. Hi Guillermo, are you ready?
Guillermo del Toro: Hi! Guillermo here- It's a bit cloudy in London but people are already drinking out on the streets- God Bless the pubs-
Peter Jackson: We have them in a super exciting countdown form and will start with Q20. We have chosen 1 question but in the case of these 20 they represent many 100s of similar questions.
WETA Host: Here's the first question. Will you be doing less location shooting this time because your set builders, digital effects teams etc have become so proficient?
Peter Jackson: Middle-earth is location, with very few structures really. It's a natural countryside and that's where a lot of shooting will take place.
Guillermo del Toro: Location will be favored and real set construction. I love REAL set construction and think that sets are very important part of the storytelling and scope of a film…
AnthonyPearson: What are your plans with the casting of Bilbo Baggins? Is Ian Holm still an option?
Guillermo del Toro: The fact that Ian Holm is SO memorable means that PJ, Fran and PB did their job right. We will utilize him in some fashion for sure but the difficulty of the role will be better assessed after we do the script (s).
DavidPlaice: Will there be any locations outside New Zealand, e.g. the Welsh Marches for The Shire?
Peter Jackson: Hi David – It is unlikely we will need any locations outside of NZ which has always been the perfect Middle Earth. there is nothing yet that Tolkien has described that we haven't managed to find in this amazing little country and I expect the Hobbit to be no different.
Guillermo del Toro: None being considered at the moment.
aust: Will Howard Shore be returning to do the score?
Guillermo del Toro: Yes- absolutely, Shore is the VOICE of these films and we will absolutely be invited back. Peter and Fran have talked to him a couple of times already and I've exchanged emails about the subject. He will return.
nolcai: Hello. Are you planning to use some location in Italy?
Peter Jackson: Hi nolcai it is unlikely we will shoot any of the Hobbit of Italy, but I would love come to Italy for a vacation, you should tell me the best places to visit.
Guillermo del Toro: Not really- But I love Italy…
WETA Host: May I congratulate on your new appointment as director of The Hobbit, Guillermo. My question is to Guillermo, what can we expect from your vision and approach with this picture and I'm guessing there will be a lot of dark elements to this film, but how far will you go in terms of horror and violence?
Guillermo del Toro: I hope that Mirkwood can be pretty scary but not graphic, I hope Riddles in the dark has an element of fear and suspense and to be deeply atmospheric but still allow the ingenious, engaging contest to take place. And Smaug should be all shock and awe when he unleashes his anger so, it will be pretty intense but not gory.
icaroz: Will the Lord of the Rings trilogy get a Blu-ray release around the time of Hobbit? or sooner?
Peter Jackson: Hi Icaroz – We are working on a Blu-ray version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy with Warner Bros at the moment, not sure when it is due for release. It certainly won't be this year.
KenshinIV: What are the chances Ron Perlman will be voicing Smaug?
Guillermo del Toro: At this time the voice of Smaug is down to a very few choices in my head and I have a completely specific one, Ron has a good chance but I have other plans for RP… we will see…
Galdor_Felagund: Will you use the Hobbit holes used in Lord of the Rings?
Peter Jackson: Hi Galdor-Falagund – yes we hope with the permission of the land owner that we will rebuild Hobbiton bigger and even better than what it was for Lord of the Rings in exactly the same location.
WETA Host: Peter & Guillermo: What do you envision Gandalf's role will be in this film? He seems to go off on his own and disappear in several sections of the book. Do you want to stay faithful to that or give him a more active role? How do you think you'll ingratiate his character into an effective, cinematic storyline?
Guillermo del Toro: I believe that Gandalf is meant to be used in that way- coming and
going in and out of the narrative. If anything, this creates the perfect setting for those "gaps" to be bridged by the second film…
Peter Jackson: Those gaps are great! There's a lot of stuff going on, which is distracting him. I'm just pleased to be getting Gandalf the Grey back for two more movies. Ian and I loved him best. We were a little sad when the Gandy the White took over.
mwilcox: Will you be filming the Hobbit in 3D?
Guillermo del Toro: At this stage it is too early to tell, but no plans are being made for that at the moment…
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