Pacific Rim: Uprising

2035. Ten years have passed since the destruction of the dimensional rift, through which an alien race was sending biological war machines - kaiju - to weaken humanity's defences. Although Earth appears to be safe for now, humanity has not rested on its laurels and has rebuilt the Jaeger programme, giant war mecha capable of taking the fight to the aliens. Jake Pentecost, the estranged son of the late Stacker Pentecost, is drafted back into the Jaeger programme to help teach a new generation of students, but moral is low when it is revealed that the the Pan-Pacific Defence Corps are developing a new generation of drone Jaegers that do not need human pilots. When a rogue Jaeger attacks a PPDC conference, Pentecost realises that the aliens are not the only enemy...

The original Pacific Rim is one of favourite movies of the last decade on the level of being a purely entertaining action flick. It didn't make a colossal amount of sense and the story was hardly deep, but Guillermo Del Toro made the "big robots fighting big monsters" story he'd always wanted and had a huge amount of fun in the process, making sure that viewers joined in with that fun.

Del Toro spent years trying to get the sequel made and, unfortunately, by the time the wheels were turning on it, he'd already moved on to other projects. Stepping into the breach - so to speak - was Steven S. DeKnight. DeKnight is hardly on the same level of reputation as Del Toro, but is also no slouch, having been a writer-producer-director on shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and the first season of Daredevil.

Unfortunately, the loss of Del Toro was only the first setback for the movie. It was quickly followed by the discovery that leading actor Charlie Hunnam was also going to be unavailable. With several of the other leads of the original Pacific Rim having been killed off in that movie, it left the sequel with a lot of storytelling void to fill. Still, the movie rallied by casting hot man-of-the-moment John Boyega (Finn in the Star Wars sequels) as the new lead and setting up a strong new story about the Jaegers becoming obsolete. The movie also undercuts expectations by leaning into a human-vs-human struggle based around Jaeger technology and kaiju bio-technology. This makes the movie feel a bit "smaller" than the first movie, with less of an omnipresent sense of dread and instead more of a mystery angle. I quite like it when a sequel goes cleverer rather than bigger for a sequel and was pleasantly surprised when Uprising took that route.

I was even more surprised when Pacific Rim: Uprising decided to also double down on characterisation compared to the first movie, which painted its characters with a fairly broad (to the point of transparent) brush. Uprising spends far more time setting up its characters and their motivations, particularly in the key subplot about a new team of cadets where all the characters are established in more detail compared to the first movie (where we didn't even learn the names of some of the Jaeger pilots). Again, no great shakes here (stereotypes and cliches abound), but the fact that I could tell which character was which and why they were doing what they were doing was an improvement over the original film.

Part of the problem with this approach is that it's perhaps a little wasted: Pacific Rim was a film about giant robots fighting giant monsters, not an in-depth character study, and it wasted no time in telling that story. Uprising's greater character focus proves to be structurally problematic, meaning we're 45 minutes into the movie - almost half its runtime - before the stakes and main storyline become clear. The second it does become clear, the movie slams the accelerator down and bombards the audience with a series of impressive set-pieces, including mecha-on-mecha battles in Sydney and in the Siberian wastes, and a truly impressive daylight slugfest rampaging through the streets of Tokyo before the movie ends at under the two hour mark (a clear twenty minutes shorter than the first movie). This makes the film feel a bit lopsided: the first half is a little too slow, the second half a bit too fast, especially when several plot twists (and the old plot twist that is itself then twisted five minutes later) undercut expectations superbly, but a little confusingly.

Still, Uprising ended up being far better than its mixed reception had led me to expect. Del Toro's defter hand on the directing tiller is missed, but DeKnight does reasonably well (even if he's a bit too in love with slow-mo action shots). I actually cared about the characters a bit more than in the first movie, although the somewhat brusque offing of some of the first movie's characters (on and off-screen) felt a bit off. In terms of plotting, the movie was surprisingly clever, adding meat to the fairly thin worldbuilding of the original and setting up a lot of plot directions the franchise can take in the future. The script had a fair few clunkers, sharing with the original an often inappropriate-feeling level of humour, but then this was never going to be an Academy Award-troubling film. The performances are all fine to good - John Boyega is clearly enjoying himself immensely - and the action sequences satisfyingly chunky.

Pacific Rim: Uprising (***½) is an enjoyable and fast-paced sequel to the original. Like the original, it's a B-movie with a huge budget and, on that level, delivers what it set out to do, and in some areas (like plotting and characterisation) is actually better than the first flick. Unlike the original, the pacing is not as strong and DeKnight, although perfectly solid, lacks Del Toro's directorial confidence, meaning the film occasionally flags a little when it should be ramping up and goes too manic during moments when it could do with slowing down. Still, a surprisingly decent sequel.

Pacific Rim: Uprising did not set the box office on fire on release and a third movie is unlikely at the moment, but the franchise is continuing with an animated Netflix show, due to air in late 2020.

First previews for PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING

The first promo material has been unveiled for Pacific Rim: Uprising, the sequel to the 2013 movie where giant robots punched giant monsters in the face and was way more fun than it should have been.

Uprising is set ten years after the first movie, with Earth facing a renewed Kaiju threat. A new generation of jaegars, more powerful and capable than those in the first movie, stand ready to meet them. John Boyega (Attack the Block, the new Star Wars movies) stars as Jake Pentecost, the son of Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) from the first movie, whilst Rinko Kikuchi reprises her role as Mako Maori. Charlie Hunnam, who starred in the first movie, is not returning due to a scheduling conflict.

This sequel will also feature a more international cast, with Chinese actors Jing Tian and Zhang Jin having a large role, a nod to the first movie's enormous success in China and the involvement of a Chinese production company in co-producing the movie.

Guillermo Del Toro is still on board as a writer and producer, but Steven S. DeKnight (Daredevil, Spartacus) is directing this second movie in the series.

Pacific Rim: Uprising will be released on 23 February 2018. You can see a snazzy website with some more info on the world and characters here.

Guillermo Del Toro teases new HELLBOY movie

Guillermo Del Toro has confirmed via Twitter that he is holding active talks with actor Ron Perlman and writer Mike Mignola on the possibility of a third Hellboy movie.

The news comes after Del Toro held a poll on Twitter asking for fans to tweet their support. With over 100,000 positive responses, he agreed to hold talks with Perlman and Mignola on the possibility.

The original Hellboy movie was released in 2004 and was a modest financial success, although it had a strong critical reception. Hellboy II: The Golden Army, released in 2008, was a much bigger box office success. Del Toro chose not to proceed with a sequel, instead directing Pacific Rim (2013), Crimson Peak (2015) and the forthcoming The Shape of Water (2017), as well as producing the TV series The Strain and the Pacific Rim sequel, Uprising, due in early 2018.

The decision to proceed with a further Hellboy movie may have been spurred by Perlman saying he'd be too old to play the role in a few more years, along with renewed fan interest and Mignola bringing the comic series out of retirement a few years ago.

Del Toro has said that a new Hellboy movie would require a budget of around $120 million and this may be difficult to finance, but clearly he thinks there is a good chance it may happen.

PACIFIC RIM 2 re-greenlit for 2018

It was on, off and now back on again. Universal and Legendary Pictures are moving ahead with Pacific Rim 2, probably for a 2018 release date.

The original movie did reasonably well at the box office (especially internationally) but wasn't a smash hit, so there was a bit of a wait before the sequel was confirmed, originally for 2017. However, having greenlit the movie Universal decided to put it on ice whilst it sorted out its development and production schedules. This has unfortunately meant that Guillermo Del Toro will be unable to return to direct, having already moved on to other projects. However, Del Toro will still co-write (with Jon Spaihts) and produce the movie.

The new director is Steven S. DeKnight, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer veteran who went on to create Spartacus and is currently working on Netflix's Daredevil. The film will be DeKnight's directorial debut.

PACIFIC RIM 2 put on indefinite hold, Del Toro considers new projects

Guillermo Del Toro's next flick was supposed to be Pacific Rim 2, the sequel to his 2012 mech-vs-monster action movie. Although only a modest success in the United States, it was a strong worldwide hit and the movie had been greenlit to begin shooting in the New Year for a 2017 release.

Unfortunately, the movie has run afoul of a political game of football between the production company, Legendary, and the studio releasing the film, Universal (Warner Brothers released the first film, but Universal has inherited the sequel). The two publicly remain committed to the film, and Guillermo Del Toro has said he wants Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams to join the cast, but it now has no production or release date.

Del Toro has also indicated he may put another film into production before Pacific Rim 2. There is no word on what the film may be, but Del Toro has been talking recently about some of his favourite vampire and horror books, including Alone with the Horrors by Ramsay Campbell, The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee and Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin. With Del Toro producing The Strain, a TV series about vampires (or, more accurately, vampire-zombie hybrids), it may be less likely that his next work will again be about the undead bloodsuckers, but if so he's got some great inspiration going on.

He also mentions Martin's Sandkings, an SF short story that was, prior to A Song of Ice and Fire, probably Martin's best-known work. It was previously filmed (in a very different form) as the first episode of the newer The Outer Limits in 1996, but a more faithful, big-budget feature film version would be brilliant.

PACIFIC RIM 2 confirmed for 2017

Guillermo Del Toro has confirmed that Pacific Rim 2 will be released on 7 April 2017. He and Zak Penn will be writing the script, working from outlines and drafts by Travis Beacham (who wrote the first movie).

In addition, there will be more Pacific Rim comic books and a new animated series as well. It appears that Legendary Pictures have decided to go the whole hog in franchising the movie after taking their time to consider its modest success. The first movie, released in July 2013, made $411 million worldwide from a budget of $190 million. However, the film did rather poorly in the United States and was only a really big smash hit in China, where it made over $114 million.

Having thoroughly enjoyed the first film, I approve this news and will be there to see the sequel.

David Bradley takes THE STRAIN

The much-in-demand David Bradley has been cast in the crucial role of Abraham Setrakian in FX's TV adaptation of Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan's novel, The Strain. Bradley has recently been seen playing Walder Frey on Game of Thrones, William Hartnell in Doctor Who drama An Adventure in Space and Time and Argus Filch in the Harry Potter movies.

Meanwhile, FX has aired a brief teaser for the show, which features rats. A pilot was filmed in September, although most of this material will be reshot due to the recasting of Setrakian (played by John Hurt in the pilot). The series proper began shooting a couple of weeks ago and will debut in July 2014. The show has been fast-tracked after an extremely long period in development.

Guillermo Del Toro's TV series greenlit

Guillermo Del Toro is executive producing a new TV series, The Strain (which depicts an infection of New York by creatures that are somewhere between vampires and zombies), based on a trilogy of novels he co-authored with Chuck Hogan. The project originally began as a TV series and became a book series when the original network passed on the project, so it's come full circle.

A non-broadcast pilot was produced last year, directed by Del Toro, with John Hurt starring as Professor Abraham Setrakian. Sadly, Hurt elected not to play the role full-time in the series and will be recast. The other castmembers, most notably Corey Stoll as protagonist Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, will be retained. Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings's Sam Gamgee) will also have a recurring role alongside Kevin Durand (Keamy from Lost).

The series has been picked up for a 13-episode first season by FX. Apparently they envisage the show running for either three or five seasons, depending on ratings. On top the normal series budget, FX are also dedicating $500,000 to the creation of the creatures that will be needed for the series.

Del Toro's day-to-day involvement in the show is likely to be limited, especially if the Pacific Rim sequel is greenlit, so the show will be primarily run by Carlton Cuse, the former co-showrunner on Lost.

The books aren't great, but they are serviceable popcorn entertainment. Hopefully the TV series will be a bit better.

Pacific Rim

2025. The cities of the Pacific Rim are under attack by Kaiju, huge creatures from another dimension which enter ours via the Breach, a portal on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. To combat this menace, humanity has built Jaegers, colossal war-mechs piloted by two people using a neural link to share the massive amounts of information flowing through the machines. Initial victories soon turn sour when larger and more powerful Kaiju start appearing, and the world's governments decide to shut down the Jaeger programme in favour of building immense coastal walls. With his resources about to run out, the commander of the Jaeger programme, Stacker Pentecost, stakes everything on a last-ditch assault on the Breach. But first he must find someone to pilot the refitted Jaeger known as Gipsy Danger.

Pacific Rim is director Guillermo Del Toro's homage to Japanese films and TV series about giant robots and huge monsters (it is dedicated to Ishirō Honda, a legendary Japanese special effects artist, as well as Ray Harryhausen). It is part Transformers and part Godzilla, only better than the recent big screen incarnations of either. Like Michael Bay's Transformers films, there's a lot of giant robots in this film smashing stuff up. Unlike Michael Bay's Transformers films, the action is well-choreographed and relatively easy to follow, the stakes of events are clearly laid out and the human characters are sympathetic and well-acted.

The writing is not original and there are few cliches that Del Toro does not leave unexplored in the film. The leading expert on Kaiju biology is a befuddled English scientist with glasses and a tweed jacket (and played by Torchwood's Burn Gorman), whilst Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost (best movie character name ever?) gives inspiring speeches and is authoritative and stern but with a human side to him. Few plot twists can't be seen coming from a mile away, but somehow none of it matters. Del Toro is having a huge amount of fun here and, unlike the ridiculously-over-convoluted plots of the Transformers films, knows it's best to keep things straightforward and simple.

That said, he does throw a few different spins on things. The Jaeger programme is refreshingly multi-ethnic, with Stacker being British, sort-of hero Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam) being American and co-lead Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) being Japanese. The other predominantly-featured Jaeger pilots are Australian, Russian and Chinese, and most of the film is set in and around Hong Kong. The casting, the characters, the setting and the film's name suggest this movie is being made with the Asian markets partially in mind, and it'll be interesting to see how it performs when it opens in those markets (it's European and American box office performance has been solid but unspectacular). The ethnic mix is refreshing, but the gender ratio is more bemusing: Kikuchi's Mako is the only female character of note in the entire movie. The female Russian Jaeger pilot gets maybe two lines (though also one of the film's funniest moments, when she and her Russian co-pilot very calmly walk away from a dangerous situation when everyone else panics) and that's about it. True, Mako kicks an enormous amount of Kaiju backside, is a complex character with a well-developed arc and is probably the second best-acted role in the film (after Elba's excellent turn as Pentecost), but it's a bit odd when there seven male characters of note in the film and only one female.

Overlooking that (and hoping it will be rectified in the unconfirmed sequel), Pacific Rim does a lot with its ingredients. The action is genuinely impressive, with the Kaiju/Jaeger fights having a weight and heft missing from similar movies, and the characterisation and drama is no great shakes, but done well enough to keep things moving along. For such an effects-drenched movie, it has a surprising amount of heart and charm (or surprising until you remember it's still a a Del Toro flick), and overcomes some logic flaws with raw enthusiasm. In that sense it feels close to the original Star Wars: an effects-laden movie built around ultimately likable (although unoriginal) protagonists.


Pacific Rim (****½) is an outrageous amount of fun, featuring genuinely impressive effects, astonishing production design and attention to detail but, more importantly, interesting (if archetypal) human characters and a nice line in humour. It even has flashes of intelligence in how it's visually constructed and the worldbuilding behind the film (though with allowances for the premise). As far as huge blockbusters go, this is one of the most satisfying of the last few years.

Design your own PACIFIC RIM Jaeger

Because designing giant robots never gets old. Especially since this one allows you to indulge in national stereotypes.

UK Jaeger puts the hurt down on the monsters whilst the pilots eat crumpets and catch up on their Downton Abbey box sets.

Meanwhile, the USA funds its Jaeger programme with a controversial tie-in with a major fast food retailer. "Go big or go extinct," is criticised on the grounds it suggests the restaurant is threatening to kill its customers unless they go super-sized. Morgan Spurlock to investigate.

Stark Jaeger was uncommonly effective at arctic warfare until it abruptly got killed off without any warning before the end of Film #1.

Hobbit 'close' to a greenlight

It is being widely reported in the entertainment press than a deal to allow filming of The Hobbit to begin in January is close to being signed and announced. MGM, despite its troubled financial state, has apparently reached an agreement with New Line and Warner Brothers which will resolve the outstanding issues from their end.


This is surprising, but welcome, news. Recently it looked like the project was, if not cursed, than certainly suffering from severe bad luck. Director Guillermo del Toro left the project several months ago, citing the delays as the main reason, whilst a small fire hit a miniatures facility that Jackson had been planning to use to shoot the movie. Last week a major union dispute led to Jackson threatening to move production to Eastern Europe, although apparently this dispute is also close to being settled to allow filming to go ahead as planned in New Zealand.

If the deal goes through, Peter Jackson is also expected to announce that he himself will direct the two movies, which are now scheduled for release in December 2012 and 2013. But, as with all news on this project, don't believe anything until the cameras are rolling.

The Fall by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

The attempts by Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, Abraham Setrakian and their various allies to stop the vampires from spreading across New York City have failed, and the city is now falling into darkness. The plans of the evil 'Master' and his pawn Eldritch Palmer are becoming clearer, spelling doom not just for humanity but for those vampire clans opposed to the Master's will. With little choice, Setrakian forges an alliance of convenience with his ancient enemies to bring down their mutual foe.


The Fall is the sequel to last year's well-received The Strain and the middle volume of a trilogy (the finale, Eternal Night, is due late next year). Conceived and developed for television by Guillermo del Toro (the director of Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy series) before he decided to retask it is a literary project, the book mixes his trademark action sequences and visual imagery with co-writer Chuck Hogan's thriller sensibilities, resulting in another tight and fast-moving novel.


This is not high literature, but The Fall remains a well-paced and action-packed read. This is much more of an undemanding airport novel than say Justin Cronin's more weighty The Passage, but there are some nice horror flourishes in the book, most notably the twisted relationship between the newly-turned vampires and their 'Dear Ones', their loved ones in life whom they are driven to turn above all others. There are other, deeper moments of characterisation (particularly revelations about Setrakian's history) but this is a book more about the action than deep and meaningful characters and themes. It succeeds in its aims, but as such risks being a fun but forgettable book, particularly when the corn starts kicking in (the feuding criminal gangs of NYC joining forces to become elite vampire-killers is ridiculous but also fun to read). There is a strong cliffhanger ending, however, where the stakes and scale of the story are ramped up to new and more impressive levels.

The Fall (***½) lacks the growing sense of horror of the first volume in the trilogy, with much more emphasis on action. It's a fast-moving story, but I can't help feeling that del Toro would have made much more of this story if he was in Pan's Labyrinth mode rather than Hellboy. As such it's fun, but lacks depth. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

Some film and movie news

SyFy are developing an online Battlestar Galactica web series called Blood and Chrome. The new series, which would consist of 10 episodes of about 10 minutes, will be set during the First Cylon War and follow the adventures of the young William Adama stationed aboard Galactica. How they handle the continuity issues - namely that Razor established that Adama didn't perform a Viper combat mission until the very last day of the war - remains to be seen.


Guillermo Del Toro has returned from New Zealand and is now planning his next film: a 3D adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, to be produced by James Cameron. According to Del Toro he thinks that the film will need a budget of around $130 million, which is a fair amount in these increasingly frugal times in Hollywood. Whether he gets it for a relatively obscure (to the mass audience) adaptation remains to be seen.

Damon Lindelof is apparently onboard to rewrite Ridley Scott's planned Alien prequels (or at least the first one). However, during discussions between Lindelof and Scott they apparently generated an idea for a free-standing SF film as well. Whether that gets developed into its own movie or is pulled back into the Alien drafts is unclear at this time. Apparently Fox are seriously wooing Scott to make the first Alien prequel his next project, whilst Scott is also eying up an adaptation of Justin Cronin's The Passage.


Moon director Duncan Jones passed on the chance to direct the new Judge Dredd movie, but now wonders if he's going to regret it. However, he suggests his planned film was too off-the-wall to be commercially viable anyway.

Guillermo Del Toro departs THE HOBBIT

Guillermo Del Toro has left the two-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit due to the lengthy delays on the project. The films were supposed to start shooting several months ago for release in December 2012 and 2013 but the ongoing sale of MGM (who hold the rights to The Hobbit and were producing the films in cooperation with New Line, who financed the Lord of the Rings trilogy) has held up the project indefinitely, although producer Peter Jackson continues to hope shooting will start before the end of the year.

Producer Peter Jackson and ex-director Guillermo Del Toro.

Del Toro had committed to the films as a three-year project before shooting his next solo movie. Previous delays had already stretched this out and with further delays likely to extend this to six years, Del Toro decided he couldn't delay his other commitments (including Hellboy 3 and a potential adaptation of Dan Simmons' Drood) further. However, Del Toro will remain in New Zealand for several more months to help with the script rewrites and addition pre-production requirements (I suspect strongly he will receive a production credit on the film for these reasons). Peter Jackson and New Line are already lining up potential replacements.

The obvious solution - that Jackson himself direct - appears to be out of the question as Jackson is booked to direct the second Tintin film either next year or in early 2012, during the proposed shooting schedule of The Hobbit.

Update: Jackson has hinted that he might consider directing if no other director can be found. He has also suggested that The Hobbit's importance to the Wellington area's economy means that he will do everything possible to stop it from being cancelled or put on hold. However, Jackson has at least two other films lined up during the filming period (presumably including the second Tintin movie and one other, unannounced project) and he is uncertain whether he would be able to get out of his contract to direct The Hobbit. Jackson's manager suggests that the possibility of Jackson directing is slight-to-nonexistent due to these commitments.

Possible replacements: Sam Raimi's name was flung around before it became clear that he was working on Spider-Man 4. With SM4 cancelled, Raimi could be back in the frame, despite him carrying out work on the proposed World of WarCraft movie. Personally, I don't think Raimi has made a great film since his Evil Dead days, with only Spider-Man 2 being watchably entertaining, so I'd definitely want him not to be involved.

The other, altogether more positive, possibility is Neill Blomkamp, who owes Jackson a favour for his production credits on District 9. Blomkamp is developing a new film and had been linked with Dune before Paramount decided to fast-track the latter with a different production team. Depending on Blomkamp's schedule, he may be a viable choice for The Hobbit.

HOBBIT movie update

The ongoing oddball situation with the two movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit continues to unfold. Peter Jackson has told Movietone that they've only just submitted the first draft of the two movie scripts to the studio, no casting has taken place and, despite Ian McKellen's recent website updates, it's not going to take place in June and no actors, not even the ones from the Lord of the Rings trilogy expected to return (McKellen, Andy Serkis and Hugo Weaving; Ian Holm and Christopher Lee have indicated they are not returning), have been locked.

Jackson instead suggests a start date in the autumn, although oddly doesn't mention the major money problems going on with MGM that have also impacted on the production (MGM, the rights-holders for the books, are co-producing with New Line, who made the original trilogy). However, recent pictures from The One Ring.net show that pre-production is underway, with construction of the Hobbiton hobbit-holes well advanced.

The first Hobbit movie is expected to be released in December 2012, with the second following a year later.

THE HOBBIT starts production in June

According to Ian McKellen, the two movies based on The Hobbit will begin filming in New Zealand in June 2010. Casting is already underway behind closed doors in LA, London and New York. The first film is currently tentatively scheduled to be released in December 2012, with the second film in the following year.


No word yet on who will be playing Bilbo Baggins, only that McKellen and Andy Serkis as Gollum will be reprising their roles from the trilogy, with Hugo Weaving also expected to return as Elrond.

THE HOBBIT movies delayed by a year

According to executives at New Line Cinema, that two movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit are being pushed back by twelve months. The movies were supposed to enter production in Spring 2010 and be filmed back-to-back over twelve months, with the first film being released in December 2011 and the second in December 2012. However, New Line execs have reported that delays resulting from a restructuring of the company will see shooting delayed until the summer (British and American time, winter in New Zealand) or even later in 2010. That makes the fourth quarter of 2012 a more attractive release date.

Smaug will have to wait another year before waking up.

The news is disappointing, but also understandable from a business perspective. The Lord of the Rings trilogy shot over a year with a full year allotted to post-production and re-shoots on each movie, but even this proved extremely tight, particularly with The Return of the King, the final cinema edit of which was delivered just hours ahead of deadline in 2003 and just days before the film was supposed to be in cinemas. The Hobbit movies also have a year-long shooting schedule, and shooting from summer or autumn 2010 to summer or autumn 2011 leaves an uncomfortably short period for re-shoots or post. Of course, the first film could instead air in summer 2012 rather than the winter, but the winter is a more lucrative time period for film releases and New Line see The Hobbit films as major 'tent-pole' films which will hopefully regain them a lot of box office clout that they have lost after a recent string of flops. In addition, this move allows Weta to have more post-production time on the two films than they did on the three Lord of the Rings films, which was restrictive (although they did produce successful results).

This news will presumably mean that the second film is also pushed back a year to December 2013.

Tobey Maguire up for THE HOBBIT?

With pre-production of The Hobbit now well underway and filming planned for early 2010, casting rumours are starting to circulate in earnest. Sir Ian McKellen recently claimed to be the only returning castmember from the trilogy, but Andy Serkis and Hugo Weaving had both previously indicated they should be returning as Gollum and Elrond, respectively.

Hobbit-in-waiting?

The casting of Bilbo Baggins is currently the biggest question over the topic, with Daniel Radcliffe ruling himself out due to fantasy burn-out. Soon-to-be-former Doctor Who star David Tennant has been heavily rumoured, but current favourite is probably Scottish actor James McAvoy (who also gets Radcliffe's backing).

A new name has now entered the ring, with the Latino Review claiming that Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire might be a contender. According to their sources, Maguire is in talks with the film's producers. Apparently he is very keen to work with director Guillermo Del Toro on a project.

What is likely to be a key consideration over whether this happens or not is timing. Spider-Man 4 begins shooting in March 2010, which is tight given that The Hobbit's start date (not set in stone yet) has been mooted for between April and June 2010. It's possible that Maguire's involvement could be a good reason for a later start date to be picked, and indeed just recently there was some talk about filming being held back to the summer, so this could all come together nicely.

The Hobbit is currently planned to film for a year and should be released in two parts, with the first part being released in December 2011 on the tenth anniversary of The Fellowship of the Ring.

THE HOBBIT movie gets the all-clear

Following the news that the Tolkien Trust (representing the Tolkien estate) were suing New Line over failure to pay royalties on The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and also threatening to derail the movie version of The Hobbit, it was announced today that the Tolkien family and New Line have settled out-of-court. The Tolkien estate are happy with the financial settlement, and New Line and their partners MGM can continue their work on the new films, which are currently in pre-production in New Zealand with director Guillermo del Toro, with filming anticipated to start in the New Year.

Tolkien Estate continues legal battle with New Line Cinema

Eighteen months ago, the Tolkien Estate filed a lawsuit against New Line, the company that made the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, for non-payment of agreed royalties. According to the Tolkien Estate, the agreement signed between J.R.R. Tolkien and United Artists back in 1968 ensured that Tolkien or his heirs would receive 7% of the gross of any film or films based on his books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Producer Saul Zaentz picked up the rights (with the same conditions attached) to The Lord of the Rings (but crucially not The Hobbit) several years later and made the animated Lord of the Rings movie with Ralph Bakshi in 1978. He later licensed the rights to New Line, who produced Peter Jackson's live-action trilogy in 2001-03, which between ticket receipts and DVD and merchandise sales has grossed more than $6 billion.

"What did you say? No new movies for Smeagol?"

After much wrangling, MGM (owners of United Artists and hence The Hobbit movie rights) and New Line have now teamed up to make The Hobbit as two movies, with Jackson on board as producer and Guillermo del Toro taking over as director. The films are currently in pre-production, with Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving and Ian McKellen expected to return as Gollum, Elrond and Gandalf respectively and many of the trilogy crew also reuniting to work on the new movies, including Tolkien artists John Howe and Alan Lee. The movies are planned for release in December 2011 and 2012.

However, the Tolkien Estate and HarperCollins, the publishers of Tolkien's books, both claim that they have not been paid the contractually required 7% of the movie gross on the trilogy, an amount which may exceed $200 million dollars. New Line had previously been sued by both Saul Zaentz and Peter Jackson himself over irregular accounting on the trilogy, and in both cases had to settle out of court. This time around the sums of money involved are staggeringly larger - it's $50 million dollars more than the total production budget of the first Hobbit movie - and there are also bigger players involved. HarperCollins is owned by Rupert Murdoch's formidable News Corporation, who are backing their publishers to the hilt.

The rights situation seems confused, but Christopher Tolkien's disdain for the movie adaptations of his father's work is very well-known. Some papers have concluded he is trying to get production of The Hobbit stopped, although how likely that is to happen is unclear. Whilst sold as one package, the rights to the two books were separated in the early 1970s, with Lord of the Rings' rights going to Saul Zaentz and The Hobbit's being retained by United Artists. As a result, New Line are arguing that the two projects are separate and any issues between them and the Tolkien Estate over Lord of the Rings have no bearing on the situation with The Hobbit. The Tolkien Estate seems to feel otherwise. If the judge agrees and returns The Hobbit's rights to the Estate (and possibly Lord of the Rings' as well, preventing any future remakes of the films without the Estate's permission), then the films will indeed have to be abandoned.

However, the general feeling is that outcome is extremely unlikely, due to the separation of the two projects. Fanbase reaction also seems to be mixed. A lot of fans are very keen to see The Hobbit and are resentful of any attempt to stop the films being made, whilst others agree that the Tolkien Estate should be paid any outstanding money that is owed to it, in accordance with the original agreement.

The case will be heard in a Los Angeles court in October. Production of The Hobbit is expected to begin in December or January and continue for over a year.