Message Board member Elven was kind enough to transcribe the April 20 interview with Guillermo Del Toro from the Voice of Krypton site, posted on TORN here.
This is the transcript form the link that MrCere posted from the Voice of Krypton website – it was audio ony – so if you couldn’t link or couldn’t hear it , here it is. I did start to also include the Ed Gross comments, though I did leave some out at the end as they were cutting in on the dialogue.
Here it is …
Ed Gross: Speaking of magic, I’ve got to ask, how realistsic are the possibilities of doing the Hobbit at this point?
GdT: I will tell you this. Today is what? Saturday …
Ed Gross: Yes.
GdT: I think, err, you know, I will say this on the panel today, but it’s like American Idol. You know (laughs) we’re in the finals ..
Ed Gross: Right.
GdT: In seventy two hours or something like that we will know if I (if I) stay or ….
Ed Gross: Right
GdT: .. or I’m booted. I mean I (I really) we are down to the last points, and (err) but they are very hard points. (I) I’ve been very careful to explore it, to talk thoroughly, I’ve spoken with all the parties, I’m very sure that I want to do it, they are very sure we want to do it, we’re just checking – crossing the last …
Ed Gross: .. finite details of the contract ..
GdT: … (but) but what is left …
Ed Gross: Right.
GdT: … is (err) is (is) the most important part.
Ed Gross: I see …
GdT: So, you know. If one of them doesn’t (cough) suit both sides (err) it may not happen.
Ed Gross: Right.
GdT: But, If it will happen, it will happen by middle of next week the latest ..
Ed Gross: Oh really (surprised tone)
GdT: .. we will know. Yeah.
Ed Gross: Oh WoW ..
Ed Gross: For you, (?) I don’t think it’s that easy for you to get back to at that point. What is the appeal for you of the Hobbit, I mean, why do you want to do this film so badly?
GdT: Well the reason is (err, err, I) – When I was a kid I bought the Hobbit and I bought the Lord Of The Rings novels. I bought them at the same time. I used my hard earned allowance …
Ed Gross: Right.
GdT: … to (to) buy them, and I was about eleven … and (and) I (I) tried to get into Lord Of The Rings first, because that was one my friend recommended, and I couldn’t get into it back then. Now I’ve read them completely ..
Ed Gross: Right ..
GdT: (err,err, and ) ..but The Hobbit trapped me. It really, really trapped me.
Ed Gross: Really ..
GdT: It really (er) I identified with Bilbo. (er) It spoke to me about (er) how the world is out there, and how Bilbo led this sort of cloistered existence …
Ed Gross: Right.
GdT: … how he was dragged from being a prissy little (err) guy, to being dragged with this fabulous, a-m-a-zing band of Dwarves into discovering (pause) life … and (er,er) and death.
Ed Gross: Right.
GdT: That is the no ..That is the novel I believe, starts very innocently and ends up, I would say tragically, but it ends up in a very bittersweet note …
Ed Gross: Right.
GdT: .. sort of the experiences of England in World War One – you know – the experience of losing your innocence but at the same time gaining manhood if you would, gaining (er) adulthood …
Ed Gross: Right.
GdT: … you know, so its (er) it’s a (it’s a) really fascinating book in that, and it’s the only one that Ive read of Tolkien that reads, that has such a facile engaging personality.
Ed Gross: Ahmm.
GdT: Its incredibly – easy to like it.
Ed Gross: Yes I agree.
GdT: you know, its incredibly easy to get sucked into. Even the way he opens (er) which is, you know, just the stating like fairytales, fairytales always a state, they say – “There was in Kingdom A good Boy” …
Ed Gross: Right.
GdT: and (and y’know) the only one of his that has that charm. That immediate hook.
Ed Gross: Yeah – [and agreed sporadically through the next dialogue of GdT]
GdT: … and you know, and I (I) think that (cough) now if I had to single out what attracts me to it is – Smaug – and the Mirkwood Spiders. Now those are like two things that like, I can’t, If I’m given allowance, to do it, I have to think they are two of the greatest experiences of my life – you know.
Ed Gross: Right (laughs) very cool!
GdT: But, (er) and the idea (er) you know … is … more will be known if I come board.
Ed Gross: Right.
GdT: Right now, anything else I say is (is) er folly.
Ed Gross: Right. The one thing I do want to know is despite your own achievements as a film maker, is there any trepidation at all following Peter Jacksons accomplishments with the Trilogy?
GdT: No, No, No. Because I think (er, I think) that er, what we’re doing is we are creating a beautiful overture. …
Ed Gross: OK.
GdT: … to a symphony. And (and) the way I see it, it is an overture has (er) a (er) a different personality but then fully belongs to the symphony. So my idea is (er) if the Hobbit takes place, its about half a century before the event of Middle-Earth that are exposing the Fellowship …
Ed Gross: Right.
GdT: .. then (er) … I am allowed to (er) start with certain umm, how would you say, err, with a lot of it being (er) the cosmology being established, we know who Gandalf is, we know what Gollum looks like, we are going to be respectful of every (every) single thing that is (er) …
Ed Gross: ..established already …
GdT: .. err,(that) that is (er) paradigm. But within that paradigm it will be a movie of mine, and it will be a movie I enjoy making … and Im not going to be thinking (Im not going to be thinking) all the time. Im going to be very careful in planning it, I’m doing it out of love, (if) if it was a universe I didn’t feel comfortable with I would have rejected it, like I had rejected many a lucrative franchise in the past.
Ed Gross: Ahhm, Right.
GdT: .. I have no problem doing that.
Ed Gross: Right.
GdT: Im into it because I love the world he created , and I, it is my hope that after that you will start and the Hobbit will be perhaps a more Golden time in the Shire … than Fellowship – so its (er) a slightly more innocent time in the Shire, and then as the two movies evolve, you will see them fully, seamlessly hopefully, going to the first one.
Cheers! Elven x
