Given that our first two choices — Peter Jackson, who said he can’t, and Guillermo del Toro, who just bailed — are out of the running, who should step up to the plate? Here are five names worth considering.
https://gizmodo.com/the-hobbit-loses-director-guillermo-del-toro-5551446
To be fair, those two guys are still the first, best choices to direct MGM two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Jackson is still Jackson, the dude who finally brought forth a live-action Lord of the Ringsand won Oscars for it. And del Toro is the most supple film-fantasist working today whose last name isn’t Jackson. But since they can’t/won’t do it, here are some contenders:
BRAD BIRD
The director of The Iron Giant and The Incredibles can deal in the massive spectacle, the soft humor, and the wrenching emotion — and, so far, the man hasn’t made a bad movie. Granted, his live-action debut, Mission: Impossible 4, is still on the horizon, so we don’t know how that’ll turn out.
ALFONSO CUARON
He can thrive in a world created by others — as evidenced by his work on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the best of the Potters — and he can operate on a grand, mythical scale as well as a smaller human one.
THE WACHOWSKIS
After the unjustly maligned Speed Racer — and the perfectly justly maligned latter Matrixes — these guys could use a home run to reassert their preeminence in the geek spheres.
NEILL BLOMKAMP
He’s already got a good working relationship with Jackson, having worked with him on District 9 — which was, oh yeah, awesome. I’m sure he wants to spread his wings a bit, but this is the friggin’ Hobbit.
SAM RAIMI
Look, The Shadow’s never gonna happen — nor should it; Lamont Cranston’s time has come and gone — and Spider-Man’s off his plate. He can handle the big, he can handle the effects, he can handle the heart.
