Hollywood can be a fickle place, with many film-makers struggling to work out where their next gig is coming from. Jealous eyes, then, will be focusing firmly this morning on the hirsute visage of Guillermo del Toro, who, according to Variety, has just signed a deal to keep him in work until 2017.
The Mexican director yesterday announced that he will work on four new films for Universal after he completes his current projects, which include the two planned prequels to The Lord of the Rings, based on JRR Tolkien’s earlier book The Hobbit.
Three of the new movies will be remakes of Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Kurt Vonnegut’s science fiction classic Slaughterhouse-Five, with the fourth being an adaptation of the Dan Simmons novel Drood. Del Toro is also still planning to adapt HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, and, as if he wasn’t busy enough, Universal also wants him to take on a producing role on two projects: an adaptation of David Moody’s apocalyptic novel Hater, and the gothic romance Crimson Peak, which the Hellboy director has also co-written.
First up, however, and taking him through the next five years, is The Hobbit, on which del Toro is currently collaborating via video-conference and trips to New Zealand every three weeks with co-writer Peter Jackson and his Rings team of Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.
Source: Guardian.co.uk
Read the full news story - http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/sep/04/hobbit.deltoro