Oh, holy hell. Hot on the heels of yesterday’s news that David Yates might have been offered the director’s chair on the two “Hobbit” films, Deadline have thrown a few more names into the hat. One of them will make fans of “The Lord of the Rings” series very happy, the other two… well, not so much.
Mike Fleming is reporting that Warner Bros and MGM executives are still trying to convince Peter Jackson, who helmed the original trilogy and is co-writing and producing the new films, that he should finish the job he started and direct “The Hobbit.” Reports that MGM executives also asked the director for any spare change he might have on him are, as yet, unconfirmed.
Jackson previously refused to rule the possibility out, although his manager commented that “Peter has obligations and commitments to other films that would make it impossible for him to direct “The Hobbit” at this time, even if it was offered, which it hasn’t been.” Aside from that, he may have a reluctance to return to the well — he’s got a number of other projects circulating, and might want to move on to something new. Part of us wants the new films to have a different feel to the original,which is what Del Toro would have achieved. But having said that, if there’s any truth to some of the other rumored names, we’d urge Jackson to sign on as quickly as possible.
Those names? Well, Fleming confirms that there’s been interest from three directors, including the previously rumored David Yates. That’s a pick we’d be fine with, but David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”) and semi-predictably, Brett Ratner are also said to have expressed an interest. We can almost hear the cries of fanboy anguish from here…
To be fair, there’s no word if this interest is two-way; it could simply be that the directors have made it known that they’d like to be involved. Either way, it seems that reports that a concrete offer had been made to Yates was incorrect. Deadline say that one of the problems with finding a replacement for Del Toro is that there are so many gross participants (Tolkien’s estate, Jackson, Saul Zaentz and Harvey Weinstein, for instance) that there isn’t much to offer an A-list director.
Even so, we’re not sure there’s any excuse to hire Ratner or Dobkin. To be honest, and it’s not a popular opinion, we don’t believe that Ratner is the Antichrist; he’s clearly kind of a douche, and has made mostly terrible films, but he’s a more competent, tasteful director than the likes of Michael Bay or McG (which is admittedly pretty faint praise…). Were he to be hired (and he won’t…), he’d probably do exactly what he did on “Red Dragon” or “X-Men: The Last Stand” — pull off a workmanlike aping of the director that he’s replaced, leading to a mediocre final project, but not a train wreck. Dobkin, however, would be a truly disastrous choice; “Wedding Crashers” was great, but “Fred Claus” was an abomination, and there’s nothing in his CV to suggest he could handle anything like “The Hobbit.” But five’ll get you ten that neither get anywhere near the project, so it’s not worth losing any sleep over, Tolkien fans.
Heat Vision also reported yesterday that Sam Raimi’s name had been mentioned in connection with the project, but unfortunately he’s now signed on to helm Disney’s “Oz The Great and Powerful.” Yates still looks like the best bet at the moment, unless Jackson can be convinced, but, if they’re looking for inspiration, we’d urge WB & MGM execs to look over our list of potential directors for the project…