Guillermo del Toro leikstýrir ekki The Hobbit

Leikstjórinn Guillermo del Toro mun ekki leikstýra The Hobbit.  Þetta kemur fram í yfirlýsingu frá leikstjóranum sem birtist á vefsíðunni theonering.net.

Aðalorsök fráhvafs del Toro mun vera sú að framleiðslu myndanna seinkaði gífurlega vegna gríðarlegra fjárhagsörðuleika MGM.  Toro var þegar með nokkur verkefni framundan þegar að hann tók að sér leikstjórn The Hobbit og eftir því sem framleiðslu The Hobbit seinkaði minnkaði sá tímarammi sem hann hafði til framleiðslu næstu verkefna sinna.  Verandi samningsbundinn til að ljúka þeim verkefnum innan þess ramma neyddist hann til að segja starfi sínu sem leikstjóri The Hobbit lausu.  Toro mun þó enn vera meðhöfundur handrits myndanna og þar af leiðandi vera með puttana í málunum upp að vissu marki.  Hér er yfirlýsing hans í heild:

“In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming “The Hobbit,” I am faced with the hardest decision of my life”, says Guillermo. “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. I remain grateful to Peter, Fran and Philippa Boyens, New Line and Warner Brothers and to all my crew in New Zealand. I’ve been privileged to work in one of the greatest countries on earth with some of the best people ever in our craft and my life will be forever changed. The blessings have been plenty, but the mounting pressures of conflicting schedules have overwhelmed the time slot originally allocated for the project. Both as a co-writer and as a director, I wlsh the production nothing but the very best of luck and I will be first in line to see the finished product. I remain an ally to it and its makers, present and future, and fully support a smooth transition to a new director”

Peter Jackson hafði svo þetta að segja:

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…The bottom line is that Guillermo just didn’t feel he could commit six years to living in New Zealand, exclusively making these films, when his original commitment was for three years. Guillermo is one of the most remarkable creative spirits I’ve ever encountered and it has been a complete joy working with him. Guillermo’s strong vision is engrained [sic] into the scripts and designs of these two films, which are extremely fortunate to be blessed with his creative DNA.

Guillermo is co-writing the Hobbit screenplays with Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh and myself, and happily our writing partnership will continue for several more months, until the scripts are fine tuned and polished…New Line and Warner Bros will sit down with us this week, to ensure a smooth and uneventful transition, as we secure a new director for the Hobbit. We do not anticipate any delay or disruption to ongoing pre-production work

Nú er spurning hver muni setjast í leikstjórastólinn.  Ekki kæmi á óvart ef Peter Jackson sjálfur myndi taka í taumana, enda er hann í raun heilinn á bakvið framleiðsluna.  En það er þó aðeins óskhyggja að svo stöddu.

Þá er vonandi að Guillermo ráðist sem fyrst í framleiðslu At the Mountains of Madness sem fyrst, en það er mynd sem ég bíð óþreyjufullur.

Hvað finnst ykkur um þetta?  Hver á að taka við?