A Mexican  film-maker behind the Oscar-nominated dark fantasy film Pan’s Labyrinth and sci-fi adventure Hellboy is in talks to direct Peter Jackson’s two Hobbit movies in Wellington.

Guillermo del Toro is reportedly on a short list of directors who could tackle the project.

A spokesman for Jackson declined to comment, but said there would soon be an official announcement on who would direct the two films, which Jackson and partner Fran Walsh will produce.

Del Toro already has links with Jackson. His physical effects studio Weta Workshop designed and made some of the props and weapons in Hellboy.

His name was also mentioned as a possible director even before Jackson settled his differences with studio New Line Cinema and agreed to be involved.

The Hollywood Reporter said the two films will be one the most anticipated literary adaptations of the decade. An ill-chosen director for Hobbit could put billions of dollars at stake for New Line and MGM and turn off an audience that encompasses millions of passionate Tolkien fans, it said.

Views were mixed on Tolkien fan website theonering.net about the possibility of del Toro directing the films, with the first likely to be released in 2010.

One fan said that he thought del Toro was a good director, but wanted Jackson to direct. “I’m just apprehensive with having another level of doubt and uncertainty as to how it will all play out in the end.”

But others were ecstatic. “Guillermo del Toro is one of my favourite directors and is definitely one of the very few besides Jackson who could do justice to the story while bringing in some of his amazing style and unique imagination,” wrote one fan.

WHO IS GUILLERMO DEL TORO?

The  Mexican-born director, writer and producer, is known for Spanish and English language sci-fi, fantasy and horror, big on visual effects. In Pan’s Labyrinth, nominated for the best foreign film Oscar last year, he blended fantasy and horror with more adult themes. Del Toro, 43, was noticed by Hollywood after his 1993 horror movie Chronos. He directed Mira Sorvino in Mimic in 1997, and a Spanish Civil War ghost story The Devils’ Backbone in 2001, then vampire saga Blade II and Hellboy.

His Hellboy II: The Golden Army has been completed. Del Toro is directing 3993 - a ghost story set in Spain - and his next project is At the Mountains of Madness, set in Antarctica and based on the story by HP Lovecraft.

The Dominion Post | Wednesday, 30 January 2008