Guilermo Del Toro has been telling The Directors Guild of America about how he finds inspiration for his movies and how his love of dragons is driving him on to make something special when it comes to creating Smaug.
“It’s such a powerful symbol, and in the context of ‘The Hobbit’ it is used to cast its shadow through the entire narrative. Essentially, Smaug represents so many things: greed, pride… he’s ‘the Magnificent,’ after all. The way his shadow is cast in the narrative you cannot then show it and have it be one thing, he has to be the embodiment of all those things. He’s one of the few dragons that will have enormous scenes with lines. He has some of the most beautiful dialogues in those scenes! The design, I’m pretty sure that will be the last design we will sign off on, and the first design we have attempted. It is certainly a matter of turning every stone before figuring out what he looks like, because what he looks like will tell you what he is.”
Del Toro is pretty much booked up for the next 10 or 12 years. As well as The Hobbit movies, he has a couple of vampire books to write and a Frankenstein movie to do. He also plans to do a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde movie and there is talk of a Hellboy 3.
So how does the director get his inspiration?
“I find you have to discipline yourself to write in the morning, and then watch and read in the afternoons stuff that seems relevant, even in a tangential way. For example, reading or watching World War I documentaries or books that I think inform ‘The Hobbit,’ strangely enough, because I believe it is a book born out of Tolkien’s generation’s experience with World War I and the disappointment of being in that field and seeing all those values kind of collapse. I think it’s a turning point that you need to familiarize yourself with. I’m starting. Peter Jackson is such a fan of that historical moment and obsessive collector of World War I memorabilia, and he owns several genuine, life-size working reproductions of planes, tanks, cannons, ships! He has the perfect obsessive reproductions of uniforms of that time for armies of about 120 soldiers… each. I asked him which books he recommended… because I wouldn’t be watching ‘Krull’ or ‘The Dark Crystal,’ I need to find my OWN way into the story. That’s the same way I did ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ or ‘Devil’s Backbone,’ by watching stuff you wouldn’t think about.”
He’s obviously excited about working on The Hobbit movies and he has his own ideas and plans for Middle Earth. Just like Jackson befoe him with LOTR, he will never please everyone but hopefully he’ll please enough with his vision of Middle Earth and its inhabitants, specially Smaug!
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