Slashfilm is reporting that David Yates is the front runner for the director’s chair on The Hobbit. Their source – very up to date insider tracking boards – can be fairly legit, so I’d assume that Yates’ name is definitely in the running for the gig.
If Yates is up for the job it tells us a couple of things: first of all, it means Warner Bros is very, very happy with the final two Harry Potter films, on which Yates just finished principal photography. But it also tells us that nobody at Warner Bros expects The Hobbit to go anytime soon; Yates will go into post on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One immediately or soon, but it’s likely that he won’t go into post on Part Two until later. That film has a July 2011 release date, so I would guess that Yates wouldn’t be ready to really work on The Hobbit until sometime next summer.
That makes sense. MGM is going down like a Led Zeppelin drummer filled with 40 shots of vodka. It’s going to take some time to extricate the rights to The Hobbit from that flaming wreckage, and I can’t even imagine the film getting underway before the second half of next year. I actually sort of don’t think the film will ever happen at this point, but if it does, 2011 at the earliest is what makes sense.
As far as directorial choices go, Yates is an interesting one for The Hobbit. What he brought to Harry Potter was a keen eye for the reality of the characters. I’m not sure that’s what a Middle Earth movie needs – these stories are more epic in sweep and mythical in nature.
9 comments
Bring back the "Unhealthy Obsession" image!
they could do a hell of alot worse than Yates, if he does get on board it will be interesting to see if he can adapt to the material. although, you could say the Hobbit is much closer in tone to the Harry Potter books than LOTR.
Are you kidding? "The reality of the characters"? The only way that is true is if the characters were made from the finest cardboard. For such a rich world, Yates brought newspaper montages and boredom to new levels in those flicks. All he would bring to The Hobbit is a kind of insanely marketable blandness with nothing ventured and nothing gained.
There is not a thing in his Harry Potter flicks that suggest he can bring something interesting to The Hobbit.
I'm all for this. He took two weakly scripted Potter flicks and made them far better movies than they had any right to be, second only to Cuaron's. I'm sure he could knock better scripts out of the park.
Boo… I thought Order of the Phoenix was alright, but Half-Blood Prince was shockingly dull considering its place in the overall HP story.
Cuaron. Raimi. Weir. Jackson. Those are still the names I like for this.
Way to dishonor the memory of John Bonham, one of the greatest drummers who ever lived.
Of course it will happen. There isn't a studio that's going to let a billion dollar and up franchise go down the drain…
I think he's doing a brilliant job with HARRY POTTER. In many ways he's the obvious choice. He seems more intent on serving the material than putting his fingerprints all over it. I love this dude.
Ok unknown user, I'll bite. Name a couple of these "many ways" that Yates is the obvious choice above Jackson, Cuaron, Raimi hell even Burton. Yates served the material? Have you seen the last two movies?
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