Since Peter Jackson has just made it offical… he’s not going to direct The Hobbit… the biggest guaranteed blockbuster on the “Coming Soon” list is now in need of a director.
MGM is probably going to have directors lined up begging for the job.
And I know who they should hire.
Consider this record:
- The timeless, beautiful children’s film A Little Princess
- Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, the best of the Potter film franchise so far
- a standard-setting, earth-shaking science-fiction epic called Children of Men, one of this year’s top five movies
Yes, I’m talking about Alfonso Cuarón.
I can’t think of anybody better. He gets great performances from actors. He develops enthralling, otherworldly, completely convincing environments. He can do action and suspense brilliantly. With Children of Men, he’s made one of the most astonishing special-effects films ever made, with camerawork that will make your head spin.
He’s the one. Get him.
Guillermo Del Toro can do fantasy brilliantly, but he’s too dark and strange. The Hobbit needs to be whimsical.
Terry Gilliam’s fighting to convince even his fans that he can still make a good movie, after the disastrous Brothers Grimm and the reportedly misguided Tideland.
Spielberg? Forget it. Not his kind of thing.
Andrew Adamson? Please, Lord, no.
Anybody have a better idea?
If it is not going to be Jackson, then by all means go with Cuaron. He is fantastic, and I think he would be faithful to the spirit of the book. I am curious if they would have to get a whole new design team to come in and do all the work, when they have “ready-made” designs at WETA.
But having said all of that, after the way this deal went down with Jackson, I don’t have a lot of confidence in New Line to pick the right director for this project.
Hayao Miyazaki!
I know he only does animated films, but he is the only guy I trust with the right imagination to pull off a film of early fantasy.
I have been reading a lot of pre-Tolkien fantasy, fairy stories and the stuff Tolkien read and I find Miyazaki has the same spirit and imagination as the early fantasy; which I find lacking in most of the fantasy written today.
Joel Schumacher !!!
(just kidding)
Del Toro is too strange, but the man who brought us Remus Lupin, Giant Were-Chihuahua, is not. Um. Right.
-derringdo
Just some options…
Tim Burton
Gore Verbinski
Brad Bird
I think Cuaron would be fantastic and up to the logistical challenges having already done Harry Potter.
Miyazaki is too much of an individual to do this. The hobbit with airships and airplanes? I don’t think so. Miyazaki is one of my all time favorite film makers.
Let’s just pray it isn’t George Lucas!
I would agree Cuaron would be best. While I love Miyazaki, I think his vision would be slightly to eastern for a hobbit movie.
Brad Bird could be interesting, though I doubt he would do it.
I also think that they should use weta, and perhaps Alen Lee or John Howe if they can get them.
Cuaron sounds like a good choice (i have yet to see CHILDREN OF MEN). I’ll throw a couple of other names out there. Neil Jordan or David O. Russell.
Werner Herzog!
Ok so I’m praying with Mike that it isn’t George Lucas, but who should it be?
Cuaron would seem a good choice, his Harry Potter film has been the best of that franchise.
Anonymous suggests Tim Burton but I would not be confident he could pull it off. The other suggestion of Brad Bird would seem an interesting outside choice. Has he done any live action stuff? I love the animated stuff he’s done, “The Iron Man” and “The Incredibles”.