Guillermo Del Toro, for your own safety I suggest you flee to your house, lock yourself away and just write The Hobbit. Just do it. If you do not, MTV will hunt you down. They will hunt you down and interview you. Do you understand?

Within the space of 24 hours MTV have posted 3 different articles all containing interviews with Guillermo Del Toro. The topic of conversation is obviously The Hobbit, and will be for the next few years. While the interviews are cool and reveal some new info, it is a little excessive. The film doesnt come out until 2011, we don’t have to ask him all the questions now!

Interview 1: Del Toro says that the two planned movies are just one in his eyes:

“The reality is that we stopped talking the first movie and second movie, and we just started taking about the movie - the two episodes, or two parts, as if they were a single piece of narrative,” he said of scriptwriting meetings between “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson, his filmmaking team of Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, and del Toro himself.

Interview 2: Del Toro talks about the writing process involving himself, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens:

“First thing is, sometimes we get all together in the same space or we all are in video conferencing. And those are sessions that can last two, three days,” del Toro said, opening up for the first time about the nuts-and-bolts aspect of the collaboration. “But after that, it’s almost like we take turns to a degree — or we each get big, big homework to do and then we come back. And then we exchange that homework and then we have input from that.”

Interview 3: Del Toro says that it has been decided that he will direct everything, and Peter Jackson will not be filming anything.

“We talked about it. I normally oppose fully the idea of second unit so my first instinct is no, we will not have second unit on this film,” Del Toro said of whether or not Jackson might at some point get behind the camera. “If there is a scheduling conflict or a problem of that sort, we may consider it, but right now the idea is I shoot everything.”

And there we have it. Until tomorrow that is…

The Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro recently spoke to ComingSoon.net and he talked about one of the characters Tolkien fans are eager to see on the big screen, Smaug.

“All my life I’ve been fascinated by dragons. I was born under the Chinese sign of The Dragon. All my life I’m collecting dragons. It’s such a powerful symbol, and in the context of ‘The Hobbit’ it is used to cast its shadow through the entire narrative. Essentially, Smaug represents so many things: greed, pride… he’s ‘the Magnificent,’ after all. The way his shadow is cast in the narrative you cannot then show it and have it be one thing, he has to be the embodiment of all those things. He’s one of the few dragons that will have enormous scenes with lines. He has some of the most beautiful dialogues in those scenes! The design, I’m pretty sure that will be the last design we will sign off on, and the first design we have attempted. It is certainly a matter of turning every stone before figuring out what he looks like, because what he looks like will tell you what he is.”

Earlier this year Christopher Lee, who played Saruman in the trilogy, said he would be interested in voicing Smaug. I wonder if del Toro will grant him that wish…

Most of us know that Guillermo Del Toro will be busy working on The Hobbit films for the next 5 years or so. He has just started on the script, so he has a long road ahead of him, although it seems del Toro likes planning ahead. According to Variety, Guillermo del Toro has got quite a few movies lined up for the next decade.

Universal — which has a three-year first-look deal with the helmer inked in June ’07 — and del Toro are making a long-term commitment by setting up four directing projects, including remakes of “Frankenstein,” “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and “Slaughterhouse-Five.”

The fourth project is an adaptation of “Drood,” a Dan Simmons novel acquired by U that will be published in February by Little, Brown.

While it’s difficult, if not impossible, to plan projects five years into the future, at this point U execs think “Drood” is the most likely to be del Toro’s first post-”Hobbit” directing vehicle.

In addition to the four pics, the studio still has its sights set on del Toro’s pet project, an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness.”

Out of the post-Hobbit films mentioned, I am looking forward to Frankenstein and At the Mountains of Madness as I have read some interesting things about both. It’s just annoying we may have to wait 9 years to see them. Damn the movie world!

Now Guillermo del Toro has got Hellboy II: The Golden Army out of the way he is now able to start work on a little movie called The Hobbit.

From TheOneRing.net

“Ive just got home from an early screening of Hellboy II The Golden Army hosted by PopcornTaxi at the Greater Union Cinema in Sydney, where Guillermo did a telephone Q & A from Berlin after the film…The last question though related to the Hobbit - and Guillermo said that although there was nothing to add at the moment - he can say that scripting has started - and he described the process as something ‘beautiful.‘”

Beautiful indeed.

Guillermo del Toro will be working alongside Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh to carve out a script for the first of hopefully two movies. A good thing is that they don’t need to rush, as they still have 1198 days until the first movie is released in December 2011.

Guillermo del Toro had a Q&A session with MTV and revealed some rather good news for Hobbit fans.

“Who do I have to kill or sleep with to get a role as an extra?” user Mike Moore asked.

“Oh my god, well that’s a good question only in that it’s asked often,” del Toro said, chuckling. “[But] I believe as the film comes to happen, in either of the two films, [fans] have a good chance of being there.”

“Sleep with a lot of people if you can! That’s a very good piece of advice. But don’t bribe anyone. It will be wasted money,” del Toro said, laughing. “We will set some rules and some contests and some fans will definitely get the chance of being extras. Go and apply for those roles!”

Contests will be the better option for Hobbit fans as there is more chance of Gimli getting a back, crack and sac wax than a Hobbit fan sleeping with anyone.

It is common for directors to cast their actor friends in their movies. Peter Jackson has Andy Serkis, Tim Burton has Johnny Depp and Guillermo del Toro has Doug Jones, so it is no surprise to here that del Toro is looking for a role Doug would be well suited for in The Hobbit.

“There’s been lots of speculation. I wouldn’t want to ruin anything. Guillermo creates things with me in mind and he’s got a better image of what I can do than I do,” the man otherwise known as the Silver Surfer and Abe Sapien told MTV News, a wicked and knowing smile across his face. “However, there might be an elf king, father of Legolas kind of character that I would love.”

That would be King Thranduil, king of the Silvan elves in the northern part of Mirkwood, where Bilbo and his company of dwarves spent a large portion of their time towards the end of the novel. Known simply as the ElvenKing throughout “The Hobbit,” Thranduil gets into it pretty fiercely with Thorin over the Arkenstone, a fight that isn’t resolved until, well, until his son Legolas and Gloin’s son Gimli become friends during the events of “Lord of the Rings.”

I’m pretty sure everyone knows that the script for The Hobbit hasn’t even been written yet, so nothing is certain. However, the doesn’t stop people from talking about things.

Things are never simple when it comes to The Lord of the Rings. There was lawsuit after lawsuit, and now the second Hobbit film, that was supposed to be a bridge between The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring, could be at risk.

It seems there is an issue of copyright, which Guillermo Del Toro points out:

In the four books that are in the domain of the copyright, there are appendices and ideas and things that can be traced without risk. But I have to be careful not to overstep. We believe there is a way to create this film and make it interesting, but it’s too early.

So they can create a second film from the ideas and appendices that exist, however they have to be careful about wandering into other areas they don’t own the copyright to.

Del Toro also went on to say:

We believe there is a second movie, if there isn’t, there will not be. If we find it, we will shoot it, but by God, if we do not find it, we will not shoot it. I am anxious to shoot the book, and I’m willing and able to dedicate myself to shooting the [second film].

It seems at the moment nothing is certain and they still do not know whether to split The Hobbit into two movies, or contain it into one.

Guillermo Del Toro says on the TORn message boards that things will get started once he has finished his Hellboy 2 rounds and Peter Jackson has finished work on The Lovely Bones.

“It’s premature but I accept it anyway because I love the f*cking trophy,”

-Guillermo Del Toro on getting a Saturn Award for his life’s work

It’s not every day that you get a chance to ask a major Hollywood director questions face-to-face.  Well, you’re still not going to, but Shawn over at MTV is getting the chance to speak with future Hobbit director and Pan’s Labyrinth mastermind Guillermo Del Toro next week, and he wants you to submit questions for him to ask!

So, think of some real gems, and pop over HERE to submit your questions.

We just want to hear some casting news!  Come on, Guillermo… give us a hint?

…well they didn’t actually say his name, but its pretty obvious! (I think)

Guillermo del Toro spoke to Empire magazine recently and revealed that both him and Peter Jackson have mutually agreed on their choice for who should step into the shoes of Ian Holm and lead the film as Bilbo Baggins.

“I can tell you that it’s down to a few names that we all agree upon. And that our first choice…completely, magically, we said the same name. All of us!”

“We said this is the guy we would talk to, but until the pages are there you have to let the character tell you who he wants to be played by…”

The reasons I want and think Martin Freeman should play Bilbo are:
A) He looks like a Hobbit (no offence to him)
B) He looks like Ian Holm
C) He auditioned for the villain role in Jackson’s upcoming drama The Lovely Bones but ultimately lost out to Stanley Tucci, therefore Peter Jackson does know of his existence.

Everyone across the internet thinks that Martian Freeman would make a perfect Bilbo Baggins, so if Peter and Guillermo have someone else in mind then he must be even better than Freeman, which will be tough. Maybe there is someone we haven’t noticed yet. However, we wont find out who they have in mind as according to Guillermo:

“You can expect at least a year before we announce any casting.”