Guillermo & Bilbo?

This has been rumored before, but the Hollywood Reporter is, ah, reporting that Guillermo Del Toro is "in talks" to pick up the two film adaptations of The Hobbit, with Peter Jackson producing as previously announced.

I'm a traditionalist on this one, and would really like PJ himself to direct these. But as a much wiser man once said, sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes...

Del Toro is a solid second choice. He can do fantasy, and he's solid with other worlds (and looking to get even better). His visual style is similar to Jackson's, and I think their aesthetics will mesh quite nicely.

What Del Toro hasn't done yet is any kind of epic; most of his films are small and intimate, even in the face of larger events. Hellboy suffered for this; the character work was excellent, but the plot that drove the film never quite gelled, leaving the film a strange mix of end-of-the-world machinations, quirky conversations, and wonderful and emotional characters.

Of course, the said could be (and was!) said of PJ prior to the release of Fellowship, as all of his work up to then was small and personal, with no large scale epics under his belt.

And that worked out okay.

At the end of the day, one of the strengths of Jackson's Lord of the Rings is how well he combines the epic and the intimate; we care about the larger goals, we understand the importance of the battles, but we also care about characters, and feel the personal motivations between them. That's the nature of the book, and the films needed a deft hand to handle the varying scales of the story.

While The Hobbit is a smaller-scale book, the films being planned are anything but; if they're truly doing two, and adding in material from The History of Middle Earth, they'll be upping the ante with the White Council and the rise of Sauron. Because the book isn't set up to balance intimate with epic, the director is going to have to work extra hard to synthesize these elements. Done right, this could be incredible.

Del Toro has to step up on this one. This is important. And I'm betting he hits it out of the park.

Harry at Ain't It Cool is reporting on this as well, with the mandatory personal-experience-as-an-insider story. Oh well. And he brings up a great idea: Ron Pearlman as Smaug!

Could definitely happen. He could also be Beorn, the bear-man. Either way, he will rock. It is safe to say he will be in the film, looking at Del Toro's recent English-language films.

There are plenty of stunt-castable actors I'd love to see (Clive Owen as Bard, anyone?), but I'm hoping that Guillermo, like PJ, can stray from the beaten path. Had Lord of the Rings been cast the way fans talked, Sean Connery would be Gandalf, Harrison Ford would be Aragorn, and Haley Joel Osment would be Frodo. Or something like that. I want to be surprised by this; I'd never even heard of some dude named Viggo Mortenson, and that was perfect.

Some quick research brings up another fantasy list of actors for the many roles; some of it is obvious (Hey, Clive Owen as Bard!), but some of it is great conjecture. Martin Freeman as Bilbo? Damn he should be a hobbit, as much as I'd love to figure out some way to get Ian Holm back in the role. Stephen Fry as a dwarf is also spot-on. But for even mentioning Shia LeBoeuf, this guy should have his fingers broken.

Personally? Pearlman would be a fantastic Smaug, but... what about Ian McShane? The Golden Compass could be a problem there, but c'mon.

How about you guys? Any guess/wishes/hopes/dreams on casting for The Hobbit?