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The Hobbit: Guillermo del Toro is no longer Directing

Guillermo del Toro has left The Hobbit, but will still help co-write The Hobbit screenplays. Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro announced on TheOneRing recently that out

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of respect to the legions of loyal Tolkien fans,” they broke the news on the site and will make sure “the films are everything that the fans want them to be.” Del Toro: “In light of ongoing delays… for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life. After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures.

This is horrible news, a directing / producing collaboration between Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro would have been perfect for The Hobbit and might have produced an even better film or films than those contained in Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Any that has seen Pan’s Labyrinth can attest to that.

“We feel very sad to see Guillermo leave The Hobbit, but he has kept us fully in the loop and we understand how the protracted development time on these two films, due to reasons beyond anyone’s control, has compromised his commitment to other long-term projects ,” Jackson said.

Jackson response to this situation is to be expected. He knows what it takes to direct a Tolkien-based film. Plus del Toro has basically put his directing life on hold to direct The Hobbit. His own projects have been languishing since he took the reigns of The Hobbit. My questions are: Who will step up to direct The Hobbit? Jackson or someone else? Who would you like to see direct The Hobbit now? What will the Tolkien Trust‘s response be to this latest development? What will Saul Zaentz response be?

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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