Michael Rogers

Geeky Friday: The Hobbit for del Toro, Prison for Blade
April 25, 2008

At the NY Comic-Con last Saturday, Guillermo del Toro said that he’d know this week whether he was getting to direct The Hobbit. Well, he got it! New Line Cinema announced yesterday that del Toro will make both The Hobbit and a sequel, which reportedly fills in the time-period blanks between The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.

This is bittersweet for fans, as many applaud the choice, those same people no doubt were holding onto last-minute hope that Peter Jackson would reconsider and take the director’s chair. Me, I’m pleased. I think he’s a great choice.

Del Toro undeniably is a savvy and visionary director, but at the con he expressed—using many four-letter words—the difficulty of working inside Hollywood on big-budget productions. For his small indie films he said, “that’s me on the screen, that’s my vision,” but in Hollywood, the director often is second-guessed. Del Toro said he’ll be in a meeting with some studio suit explaining his script or his edits “and the guy will say, ‘but maybe we could do it this way instead,’ and I’m thinking die, die, motherfu$&er, die.” Colorful guy.

Blade staked
Bad news for comics fans, Blade finally has been defeated by the biggest, nastiest, thirstiest bloodsucker of all—the IRS. Actor Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison for income tax evasion. His lawyers will appeal. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Snipes said he thought Blade Trinity sucked as much as the fans did (believe me, that's saying something) and was interested in doing Blade IV. Probably never happen now—at least not for another three years!

Posted by Michael Rogers on April 25, 2008 | Comments (0)