Chat con PJ y Memo

Hay varias buenas preguntas, hay un plan de diversión harto confortante. Pero lo mejor del chat que han sostenido esta madrugada, hora de México, Del Toro y Jackson vía Weta, son, por supuesto, sus respuestas. ¡Alan Lee y John Howe! ¡Dioses de los dioses: Howard Shore! ¡Ron Perlman! ¡¡¡BEORN!!! ¡Memo del Toro confesándose como enano y Jackson ratificando que él, igual que sus padres, es un hobbit hecho y derecho, aunque, según hemos descubierto, con cierta vocación curiosa por la aventura. ¡Gordito pachón!

Hay cosas particularmente interesantes. Hay que leer la versión entera y oficial, pero, por lo pronto, la transcripción que ha hecho El Fenómeno es utilísima.

What was it about Guillermo that made you feel he was the right guy to continue on the saga of Middle-earth? Are the two of you on the same page for the vision, direction, and style that these movies will have? If the two of you disagree on a point, who wins out?
Peter_Jackson: I'll talk more about this in a later question, but watching his films, he has respect for fantasy. He understands it, he's not frightened by it. Guillermo also understands character, and how the power of any movie is almost always linked to how closely we empathize with characters within the story. His work shows great care and love for the main characters he creates. He also has supreme confidence with design, and visual effects.
If we disagree, the director has to win, because you should never force a director to shoot something they don't believe in. But we're both reasonably practical and ego-free, and I believe that if we disagree, we both have the ability to express our differing theorys - state our case, like lawyers - and between us, work out what's best for the movie.

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 gorey.

Guillermo del Toro: Smaug should not be "the Dragon in the Hobbit movie" as if it was just "another" creature in a Bestiary. Smaug should be "The DRAGON" for all movies past and present. The shadow he cast and the greed he comes to embody- the "need to own" casts its long shadow and creates a thematic / dramatic continuity of sorts that articulates the story throughout-
In that respect, Smaug the CHARACTER is as important, if not more important, than the design. The character will emerge form the writing- and in that the Magnificent arrogance, intelligence, sophistication and greed of Smaug shine through-

Guillermo_del_Toro: Tolkien wrote 13 dwarves and I intend to use 13 dwarves. I am, in fact, thrilled to keep them all and have them be distinguishable and affecting as characters. Much of the drama and emotion in the last third of the book and film will come from them.

Guillermo_del_Toro: The proposition of spending half a decade crafting these films received- as Peter will atest- a 5 second “YES” from me. To people in my industry I’m usually a guy that tries to generate his own projects and I remain very elusive when people try and attach me to big projects. For decades I have passed on films of enormous scope but this is a fantastic privilege and I immediately said “Yes”.

Which of the actors from LOTR will be back to reprise their roles in The Hobbit and its companion film?
Guillermo_del_Toro: Obviously, at this stage, the second film is still being figured out- so the actors that have been approached may or not have appeared in the HOBBIT as a literary work but still may appear in the second film as it “blends” into the Trilogy and expands. Therefore what can be said is: Unequivocally, every single actor that originated a role in the Trilogy will be asked to participate and reprise it. If Health, availability or willigness become obstacles – and only in that case recasting would be considered.
Peter_Jackson: Like Guillermo says, apart from extreme circumstances, we would never recast a character who appeared in the LOTR trilogy. You can read The Hobbit and pretty much see which characters play a part. The unknown facter is Film Two, which we are still developing. If we wished to write one of the LOTR characters into the narrative of Film Two, we would only do that with that actors blessing, and willingess to take part. Otherwise we`d take the writing in another direction.

(THE DRAGON!)