Peter Jackson by Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro have found the perfect writers for The Hobbit and its sequel themselvesDel Toro who is directing the movies will work with the Lord of the Rings filmmaker and Hobbit executive producer to adapt the JRR Tolkien book and write its companion film according to The Hollywood ReporterOther writers include Jacksons wife Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens both of whom collaborated with Jackson on the Rings trilogyThe two auteurs spent eight months searching for a writer to adapt the literary classic When Jackson and New Line settled their differences over profit participation in the Rings films the Oscar winner said he would not pen the Hobbit movies because of other commitments While looking for another writer however Jackson and del Toro found openings in their schdules realized how much they loved the material and decided there was no time to bring in someone unfamiliar with Middle EarthTolkien wrote The Hobbit for his children
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Guillermo del Toro by Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com
Its officially official After months of rumored talks previously reported here Guillermo del Toro has signed on to direct The Hobbit the next installment in the Lord of the Rings series as well as its sequel says Variety The director is diving in to his new project full-on Del Toro is moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work with LOTR director Peter Jacksons production teams ostensibly to learn the ways of Middle Earth at the heart of it all He also faces a huge amount of material to tackle as both films which hes shooting back-to-back will cover a 60-year period starting where The Fellowship of the Ring left off Are you pleased with the final directorial choice Had someone else in mind Or have you been cheering on del Toro all along Anna Dimond
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Peter Jackson by Pierre Vinet/New Line
Following much legal tangling and a small degree of name-calling, Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have settled all litigation relating to the Lord of the Rings trilogy and reached an agreement to bring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit to the big screen. "I'm very pleased that we've been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line," Jackson says in a statement to the AP. "We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth."As was done with the three Lord of the Rings films Jackson helmed, a pair of Hobbit movies will be filmed simultaneously. Production is set to begin in 2009, with the releases coming in 2010 and 2011. While Jackson (with Fran Walsh) will executive-produce the pics, a director has yet to be named.
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X man James Marsden is in talks to be Cameron Diaz's hubby in The Box, a horror pic about a box that dispenses a hefty sum of cash — while someone you know dies.... Also per the Reporter, with Night at the Museum's Shawn Levy stymied by scheduling conflicts, David Dobkin (Fred Claus) will direct and Craig Wright (Dirty Sexy Money) will write the big-screen adaptation of The Flash.... Until his port of the vidgame Halo is a go, Peter Jackson is moving ahead with District 9, a live-action sci-fier, says Variety.... Producer Brad Pitt has acquired the graphic novel The Killer (shop Amazon), to be made into a film directed by David Fincher.
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Darth Vader courtesy 20th Century Fox
Ask FlickChick Top 14 Movie Misquotes the Scream That Will Not Die and MoreQuestion I dont want to sound like a complete geek but it bugs me when people misquote famous movie lines like Luke I am your father which just isnt what Darth Vader said I feel that if youre fan enough to quote a movie you should be fan enough to quote it right Please tell me Im not the most compulsive person ever DonFlickChick The most compulsive ever No way I basically agree If youre going to quote the quote quote the quote That said theres a pattern to a lot of common misquotations Heres the thing Screenwriters cant predict whats going to seize the public imagination when theyre writing so that kickass line is often embedded in a larger less pithy piece of dialogue1 The Empire Strikes Back 1980Misquote Luke I am your father Actual quote No I am your fatherYour b234te noire spoken during Lukes illusion-shattering confrontation with his nem
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This season has been a real roller-coaster ride in terms of quality but tonights episode was most definitely a high point in my book First we had Gary Busey using Johnny Drama as his body art canvas Next Mary J Blige stopped in for her annual Make-Me-Understand-What-I-Pay-You-For meeting And finally Peter Jackson offered Eric a glimpse of legitimacy as Vinces representation All of these storylines were funny and entertaining and reminiscent of what Ive always liked best about this show how these four childhood friends navigate the ins and outs of HollywoodI dont know if Gary Busey is as crazy as his public persona would have you believe but he was pure lunacy tonight as he introduced Drama to the high art of body painting Meanwhile Ari prepped for his meeting with Mary J Blige while mediating the sibling rivalry between identical twin agents Naturally Mary J was the only one who could tell which was which and she happened to like the
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Per the Reporter, Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher are in talks to star in What Happens in Vegas..., a rom-com about two strangers who, following a night of debauchery, wake to find themselves hitched. It's like that Friends episode, only... actually, I have no end to that sentence.... Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, employing motion-capture technology, will each direct one film in a trilogy based on the adventures of Tintin, says the AP.... Forest Whitaker, you've won an Oscar! What's next for you? Why of course, a film with Jessica Biel. The big guy's a suicidal ex-priest, Biel a stripper with a heart of gold terminally ill son in the inspirational drama Powder Blue.
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Per Variety, Hugh Laurie and Chris Evans (Fantastic Four) are set to play internal affairs agents in Night Watch, a James Ellroy-penned crime drama about a downward-spiraling cop (Keanu Reeves) framed by his onetime mentor (Forest Whitaker).... Speaking of House, imminent guest star Piper Perabo is heading South of the Border for a live-action Disney pic about a Beverly Hills chihuahua lost in Mexico.... Aussie Luke Ford, 26, is Brendan Fraser's son (ouch...) — and the franchise's heir apparent — in the third Mummy movie.... Peter Jackson is shopping his spec script for an adaptation of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones.... Per Variety, Blade II's Luke Goss has gone bad again, playing a ruthless prince in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.
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Harsh words uttered by New Line cochairman Bob Shaye in an interview with Sci Fi Wire appear to have all but nixed any chance for Lord of the Rings auteur Peter Jackson to helm the Hobbit trilogy. With a nod to Jackson's lawsuit against New Line, which seeks to sort out a financial anomaly born of an audit of the original LOTR film, Shaye said, "I don't care about Peter Jackson anymore. He wants to have another $100 million or $50 million, whatever he's suing us for. He thinks we owe him something after we've paid him over a quarter of a billion dollars. Cheers, Peter."In response, says Reuters, Jackson issued a statement saying he only seeks to hold New Line "to its contractual obligations and promises. It is regrettable that Bob has chosen to make it personal."
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Andy Serkis gave life to King Kong.
When the visual-effects team for King Kong took to the stage to accept their Oscar earlier this month, they made a point to thank Andy Serkis. It's not very often that actors are cited by visual-effects winners, but then again Serkis is no ordinary actor. For the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he created the voice and movements of the Gollum-Smeagol character. For King Kong, he took on the role of no less than the great ape. TVGuide.com caught up with the Brit for the occasion of Kong's March 28 DVD release to get an idea of exactly what's involved when bringing mythic creatures to life.
TVGuide.com: How did it come about that you are director Pe
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