The Geekscape Guide to Who SHOULD Direct ‘The Hobbit’

With all the legal troubles at MGM and the constant delays to the start of production, it didn’t really come as a surprise that Guillermo Del Toro gave up on directing The Hobbit, but it still really sucked. Many fans agreed that Del Toro was the ideal substitute for Peter Jackson, who has busied himself with other projects but remained involved as a writer and producer to keep the series on track. There have been some rumblings that Jackson will direct The Hobbit if he absolutely has to – and we don’t doubt that he’d do a great job – but the sentiment doesn’t exactly fill us with confidence. “If he has to?” Directing The Hobbit might be a massive undertaking, but it shouldn’t be a chore.

What follows is the Geekscape Guide to who should direct The Hobbit if neither Guillermo Del Toro nor Peter Jackson are up to the task. Frankly, we don’t think many directors out there have proven themselves worthy of the honor, but we were able to narrow it down to ten candidates (well, technically eleven) for the new most coveted position in Hollywood. From the obvious picks to the dark horses, here are the filmmakers we’d actually want to sit in the director’s chair.

1. FRAN WALSH & PHILIPPA BOYENS

I hate to break it to you guys, but Jackson’s co-writers on the Lord of the Rings trilogy pretty much co-directed the entire movie. Watch the special features on the extended editions, and they’re constantly talking about how Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens or both were off directing one unit of photography while Jackson was busying himself with some of the larger action sequences or special effects or something. With Jackson actively producing the project, this subtle shift of power could help maintain tonal continuity throughout the new movies and the previous ones, which fans are really looking for. We don’t know how interested they are in officially taking the director’s chair. We just know we’re interested in seeing it happen.

2. SAM RAIMI

Like Jackson, Raimi pulled himself up by his bootstraps and rose from the ranks of B-Movie horror director to the man behind major Hollywood blockbusters and Academy Award-nominated smaller films (we’re talking about A Simple Plan, if you’re having trouble placing it). Raimi was rumored to be a contender early on and seemed interested, but he was still planning on doing Spider-Man 4 at the time. With that out of the way, only his proposed adaptation of World of Warcraft remains a serious obstacle. And really, would you rather direct a movie about Middle Earth or a movie about ‘Middle Earth Junior?’ His signature style might seem like an obstacle, but he’s proved himself adaptable before (For Love of the Game, The Gift). Fans love him, and the studio knows he can handle large productions that go on to box office success.

3. ALFONSO CUARON

Alfonso Cuaron is one of Del Toro’s most famous contemporaries, along with Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu (who is not making this list, since the last thing we want from The Hobbit is the desire to slit our wrists after seeing it). The acclaimed director of Children of Men, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Little Princess has proved time and again that he can make tales of wonder and imagination with class, not to mention heart. His familiarity with using visual effects to tell a story rather than overpower it would be an asset to Jackson and company, not to mention his attention to quality performances (you might have noticed that the young actors in the Harry Potter series really stepped up their game after working with him). He’s a great director who may wish to remain more independent (they offered him more Harry Potter movies, but he didn’t like committing years of his time to one series), but we’d pay to see Cuaron’s The Hobbit any day.

4. NEILL BLOMKAMP

A few years ago people underestimated Neill Blomkamp. They assumed he couldn’t handle a visual effects heavy action movie and generate lucrative box office receipts, even from a proven pop culture phenomenon. (We’re talking about the Halo franchise, of course.) We don’t think anyone’s likely to make that same mistake twice, not after he turned a visual effects heavy original intellectual property – meaning there was no built-in audience to depend on, financially – into a box office smash that also nabbed a couple of impressive Academy Award nominations (for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Visual Effects). District 9 wasn’t exactly in the style of The Lord of the Rings movies, but he clearly has a solid rapport with Peter Jackson the Producer and WETA Workshop, so we think he could put together a rock solid Hobbit movie… if the studio asks nicely, of course.

5. FRANK DARABONT

Academy Award-nominated director Frank Darabont is a great director. No one seems to dispute that, even if you’re one of those philistines who hated The Mist. He also has a strong background in genre filmmaking, having adapted multiple Stephen King movies to critical success and written a fair number of horror movies, like Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (which was one of the good ones, if you’ll remember) and the better-than-it-had-any-right-to-be 1988 remake of The Blob. Darabont has a classy directing style, with an eye for memorable framing and distinctive but unobtrusive color palettes. And what were the creatures in The Mist if not a testing ground for Smaug and the giant spiders of Mirkwood? There’s no doubt in our minds that Frank Darabont would make a great film adaptation of The Hobbit, but with his new emphasis on television – he’s writing, producing and directing the new TV series of Robert Kirkman’s ‘The Walking Dead’ – the question is whether or not he’d even have the time.

6. DAVID FINCHER

A few years ago, we would have agreed that David Fincher was a great director but expressed serious reservations about how his pervasive visual style would translate to the world of Middle Earth. But as we said, that was a few years ago. Of late, Fincher has grown considerably as a visual stylist and crafted unique distinctive cinematic visions (the brilliant but underappreciated Zodiac) and even heartbreaking fantasies (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) that feel much more appropriate for a classic adventure like The Hobbit. His eye for violence and knack for ratcheting suspense would be particularly useful during the gruesome troll sequence and the epic final war, and his unsung ability to wring brilliant performances from genre material is nothing to sneeze at either.

7. KENNETH BRANAGH

Kenneth Branagh is a respected director, but like Fincher we probably wouldn’t have considered him a few years ago. His last great success as a filmmaker was quite a while ago now (1996’s Hamlet or 1991’s Dead Again, depending on who you talk to), but now he’s crafting what appears to be a huge-ass fantasy blockbuster adaption of The Mighty Thor and advance buzz is strong. Branagh’s Shakespearean background seems tailor-made for Middle Earth, and his eye for grandeur would be a powerful force for good at the WETA workshop (not that they’re slouches in that department either). Still, Branagh’s box office credibility hasn’t been given a jumpstart just yet, so unless he’s got a pretty solid demo reel of Thor footage already prepared he might not be positioned to take that director’s seat for a while. On the other hand, The Hobbit is probably going to be in development for a long enough time that he might be able to pull off the transition pretty seamlessly once Thor starts knocking our various socks off.

8. MIKE NEWELL

The opposite of David Fincher and Kenneth Branagh, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell would have been a lot higher on our list last week. Some of us are of the belief that Newell’s Harry Potter movie was in many respects the best in the series, conveying not just the plot but the entire world of the Potterverse with a kind of unobtrusive directorial vision that can be easy to overlook. Plus, Newell has directed such exceptional acting showcases as Enchanted April, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Donnie Brasco. So his pedigree with both actors and crafting fantasy worlds was unshakable… until the mediocre Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time sullied that reputation a little bit. We don’t really blame him, since he was hindered with a lesser screenplay and a need to fit the Bruckheimer mold (which did the action sequences no favors), but with Prince of Persia underperforming both critically and at the box office he’s probably not at the top of anyone’s list right now. It’s a shame, because with the right material – like The Hobbit, for example – Newell can be a truly great director.

9. HENRY SELICK

We’re just going to throw this one out there to see if it sticks. Henry Selick’s Coraline was one of the best films of 2009 and presented as finely detailed a fantasy world as any we’ve ever seen. Selick has been behind timeless classics like The Nightmare Before Christmas (which people often forget wasn’t actually directed by Tim Burton), classy children’s stories like James and the Giant Peach, and admittedly one enormous turd by the name of Monkeybone (which was so completely off the mark that it’s difficult to tell exactly what happened). But with Coraline, Selick is clearly on the creative upswing and a collaboration with Jackson and WETA, who have extensive experience with the material, might be a match made in heaven… if he can stand to work in live-action, that is.

10. ALEX PROYAS

Another director with a less-than-perfect track record, Alex Proyas went from directing astounding genre marvels like The Crow and Dark City to the abysmal mess that was I, Robot. Proyas blamed studio interference for that one (so do we), but it seemed unlikely that he would pick himself up again afterwards. Surprisingly he proceeded to then kick enormous ass with Knowing, a Nicolas Cage movie about apocalyptic prophecies that had a merely decent script but featured some of the best directing of last year. Proyas brought a vaguely silly idea to horrifying life in a series of stellar suspense set pieces and slowly developed a mythology that might not have made much sense in retrospect but worked like gangbusters while you were watching the film. With The Hobbit, Proyas wouldn’t have to worry too much about being let down by the script – which Jackson, Walsh and Boyens are still writing with Guillermo Del Toro, so it should turn out just fine – and can focus on just telling a grand story of epic fantasy adventure. We think he still has it in him.

Did we leave anyone out? Who do you think should direct The Hobbit if neither Guillermo Del Toro nor Peter Jackson pull through?