Guillermo del Toro to Revolutionize Animatronics
posted by The Joe
As you probably already know, Guillermo del Toro was finally confirmed as director of The Hobbit and a second, unnamed film that will precede Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Some press have been questioning the decision due an interview at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival where he stated . . .
“I was never into heroic fantasy. At all. I don’t like little guys and dragons, hairy feet, hobbits — I’ve never been into that at all. I don’t like sword and sorcery. I hate all that stuff.”
I, for one, am saddened to see del Toro spend four years of his life making these films instead of At the Mountains of Madness or Saturn and the End of Days. However, a new perspective on the franchise could be interesting, especially if its from someone not sold merely on Tolkien’s fixtures. Better yet, though, is what del Toro had to say to TheOneRing.net . . .
What will differ from your films versus Peter’s?
The only thing I will be pushing for more in these films that the other three are full animatronics and animatronic creatures enhanced with CGI, as opposed to CGI creatures themselves. We really want to take the state-of-the-art animatronics and take a leap ten years into the future with the technology we will develop for the creatures in the movie. We have every intention to do for animatronics and special effects what the other films did for virtual reality.
Lord of the Rings - French & Saunders Version