Doug Jones Talks Frankenstein, The Hobbit, & Hellboy 3

Rob Frappier — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:18:39 +0000

Judging from their work together on Hellboy, Hellboy 2, and Pan’s Labyrinth, when director Guillermo del Toro gets together with actor Doug Jones, good things usually happen. So, naturally, in casting his many upcoming projects, Del Toro has turned to the highly talented Jones again. In an interview with SCI FI Wire, Jones spoke about his involvement in Del Toro’s upcoming films, Frankenstein, The Hobbit, and possibly Hellboy 3.

I’ve excerpted some of the best parts of the interview below, but make sure to check out the full interview, which is linked at the bottom of the page.

On Frankenstein:

“Guillermo did say to the press that he’s already cast me as his monster, but we’ve yet to talk about it. But in his mind, if that’s what he’s decided, then it’s done…It would be a dream come true.”

On The Hobbit:

“We have not had any conversations about what he wants…I don’t know what I’m doing or how many characters it will be, because he tends to like to use me the whole time depending.”

Doug Jones as Abe Sapien in Hellboy

On Hellboy 3:

“It’s just a matter of time, and…if Ron Perlman wants to don the makeup again…If there is a Hellboy 3, Doug Jones will be in it.”

It will be great to see Jones and del Toro team up again. I loved his work as The Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth and can’t wait to see what role he’ll end up playing in The Hobbit. Although he is known for taking on roles as non-human characters, it is unfair to pigeonhole him as a “monster movie actor.” Jones brings such depth to each of his characters that you don’t even think about the heavy makeup. In this regard, Jones reminds me of the great Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, two actors whom he greatly admires.

Are you looking forward to seeing Doug Jones take over the reins of Frankenstein’s monster? Who do you think he’ll end up playing in The Hobbit? What’s your favorite Doug Jones role?

The first chapter of The Hobbit is due out in December, 2011 and the second chapter in December, 2012. Frankenstein will enter pre-production this summer, but, according to Guillermo del Toro, won’t begin filming for about five years(!). There are no production dates set for Hellboy 3, but del Toro and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola have worked out a potential story.

Source: SCI FI Wire

Guillermo del Toro: The Hobbit Casting Confirmations & More!

Rob Keyes — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:01:37 +0000

In unsurprising but awesome news, busy man Guillermo del Toro confirmed today some of what most fans have been expecting for a long time in regards to some role reprisals in The Hobbit by a few of our favorite actors and characters from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

According to del Toro in a BBC Radio interview with regards to The Hobbit, Hugo Weaving will again be playing Lord Elrond, Sir Ian McKellen will be back as our favorite bearded wizard, Gandalf the Grey, and last but not least, the talented Andy Serkis will be back as Gollum.

Last week, del Toro revealed that they’ve narrowed down the candidates of who will play Bilbo Baggins to just one and that we’d likely be hearing about that soon. With these casting confirmations today, and updates of the movie popping up seemingly on a weekly basis, I expect we’ll find out who our little Hobbit will be fairly soon, or at the very latest, at San Diego Comic Con next month.

The BBC Radio interview didn’t just focus on who’s playing who though, del Toro also again talked about how the films will be split up with no ‘bridge’ film, and what they’ll focus on (which we reported on last week):

“There is a whole other chapter, so to speak, which is the comings and going of Gandalf which are dealt with, people that know the lore know that Gandalf was delayed with a crisis… with a character that is very shady called the Necromancer that proves to be Sauron.”

Another tidbit of info del Toro revealed is that after eight months of working on the design for Smaug the dragon, they’ve just hit on the basics of his engineering and it’ll be probably another half a year at least, before they’re able to show him off in detail.

Guillermo’s conversation with host Simon Mayo also touched on a few of his many projects listed in development. Here are some of the key points:

Hellboy 3 is unlikely due to Ron Perlman being averse to wearing the prosthetics again.
He’ll be producing, not directing, Jekyll and Hyde
He’ll be directing Frankenstein and his one of his go-to guys, Doug Jones, will play the monster.
Blade 4 with Wesley Snipes won’t happen because of legal issues between Snipes and New Line, so del Toro won’t be directing it.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for more updates on The Hobbit and Guillermo del Toro’s many other projects.

What do you think of these updates and are you excited to see some familiar faces returning to The Hobbit?

The first of The Hobbit films is due out in December, 2011 and the second in December, 2012.

Sources: /Film, MTV

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Doug Jones Talks Frankenstein, The Hobbit, & Hellboy 3

Guillermo del Toro: The Hobbit Casting Confirmations & More!