guillermo del toro

The Hollywood Reporter has a quick Q & A with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola concerning his design work on Guillermo Del Toro's film adaptation of The Hobbit. The comics legend was brought in for a week to lend a hand on pre-production designs, but felt that he really wasn't needed -- not when he's sitting beside the same artists who successfully established Middle Earth for Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.

I guess that answers some questions about Del Toro's design approach. While it sounds like he's looking for ways to make it his own, he's also keeping it in visual line with Jackson's established universe. Mignola has a very specific design sense, and even he seems to think that his work won't be as visible here as it was in previous projects like Atlantis: The Lost Empire or the Hellboy movies.

I've been a Mignola fan since Rocket Raccoon back in the 80's, and I'm always pleased to hear him involved on any project, whether on film or on the printed page.

Well, it's already been quite a day for the 'ol geek-tastic rumor mill. My fellow SciFi Squad-ers Erik Davis and John Gholson have the Deadpool and Spider-Man 4 rumors/reports handled, respectively, over at Cinematical, so do check those out if you haven't already. But as if those two pieces weren't enough already, we've got some casting speculation for The Hobbit, courtesy of Ain't It Cool News.

Now, AICN tells us this little bit of speculation comes via a "trusted anonymous name", which of course means take the following with a serious grain of salt people. According to said anonymous source, Tom Waits is being considered for a role in The Hobbit. The Guardian went on to further speculate that Waits was likely up for the voice of Smaug, the dragon, which is not only a logical leap to make, but one suggested way back in January of 2008 by an AICN talk-backer. Nice call Nice Marmot. For what it's worth, Guillermo del Toro used Waits's song "Heartattack and Vine" in Hellboy to introduce the all-grown up version of the character, whose face actually kind of looks like Waits when you think about it.

Details on the Guillermo del Toro directed, Peter Jackson produced two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit have been slow coming so far. Fans of Lord of the Rings are dying to know who, if any, of the trilogy's original cast will be returning in the new films; as well as who exactly will be filling the biggest roles from the book. Well now del Toro has stepped up to the plate and announced, via a translation of an interview with the director that aired on German TV, a new cast member for the film: himself.

Yep, the Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth director has set aside a tiny little cameo in the form of a small monster found in Middle Earth: "I had a hand on the design of the creature and I will personally sculpt the appliances that will be applied on my face and hands. I used to sculpt the creatures for NECROPIA (my FX company) and I miss it a bit. I will have a line or two and die quickly."

That's about the extent of the detail he gives, which has me wondering whether it'll be a noticeable cameo (as Peter Jackson's was in Fellowship of the Ring) or whether he'll be a background goblin that blends in with the horde. Whatever the case, I find it very, very cool that he'll be creating the make-up effects for the apperance himself. Should be an interesting Easter Egg to keep your eye out for when The Hobbit releases in a few years.

If you happen to speak German, feel free to watch the entire interview below, which deals mainly with del Toro's vampire project, The Strain.

By now you've probably figured out that Disney hosted its own mini convention in California over the weekend, and they used the time to make a whole bunch of announcements regarding their upcoming movies, as well as to screen some nifty footage for fans and critics alike. Since there was such an abundance of new information, we've gone and collected the specific sci-fi news for you to review at your leisure.

Movie News

-- Pirates of the Caribbean 4 landed a subtitle, and will now be called Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Johnny Depp will reprise the role of Captain Jack Sparrow, and the plot may or may not have something to do with the book called On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. [Cinematical]

-- Disney will be launching a new horror label alongside Guillermo del Toro, and they're calling it Disney's Double Dare You. The first film out of the gate under the new label is based on an original idea and called Trollhunters. del Toro will produce all the films under this label, and may even direct some too. [Cinematical]

-- Nicolas Cage, there to help promote the upcoming live-action version of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, somehow found a way to compare the experience of making the film to 9/11 ... but in a good way (we think). [Cinematical]

-- Tron: Legacy producer Sean Bailey chatted up all things Tron with Cinematical. Here's a quote: "Well, we had a lot of stuff we wanted to say in this movie. We wanted to explore this father/son story of Kevin and his son Sam. We had this new important character named Cora played by Olivia Wild. We had to tell her story. If we could have made a four hour movie, we probably would have." [Cinematical]

More after the jump

Don't ask me how Guillermo del Toro works on four hundred projects at once, because it always amazes me to see how much he's got going on, and it's also inspiring to see a filmmaker that passionate about creating and conceptualizing and coming up with awesome new things for the world and his fans. Guillermo del Toro is exactly the kind of guy we want handling some of these more fanboy-ish properties because he's a true geek -- and while other filmmakers are using their celebrity status to attend parties at the Playboy mansion, this mofo is designing creatures and drawing in his sketchbook and working hard to please us.

Round of applause before we move on ...

In a new interview on BBC Radio, Del Toro let loose that he's already cast friend (and collaborator) Doug Jones as Frankenstein in his planned adaptation of the classic tale, and will begin testing things like make-up within the next few weeks -- though he admits (to Digital Spy) that he's "not in a hurry" and is perfectly fine shooting the film five or six years from now. "You have one shot in your lifetime at these things and I don't want to do it the wrong way."

As far as The Hobbit goes, Del Toro confirmed to BBC that Ian McKellan is back, as well as Andy Serkis and Hugo Weaving, all of whom will be reprising their roles from the original trilogy. The writer-director also confirmed that there will only be two Hobbit movies, not three, which is a fact that was revealed earlier this year.

News on Del Toro's other projects after the jump.