Smaug The Magnificent
Published on: 29th November, 2009
Smaug The Magnificent | Related News
At the Directors Guild of America last night Guillermo Del Toro discussed his plans for Smaug the Magnificent:
“All my life I’ve been fascinated by dragons. I was born under the Chinese sign of The Dragon. All my life I’m collecting dragons. 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.”
During a question and answers session he was quizzed by a Hobbit fan regarding his plans for the Wargs appearance and joked that he couldn’t say too much as Warner Bros. had a sniper in the building monitoring his every word.
“There will be different sensibilities involved in this movie than there were in the original trilogy. First of all, because we have the travelogues in ‘The Hobbit’ which goes to places and variations on races that were not addressed in the trilogy. My belief on the ‘Wargs’ issue is that the classical incarnation of the demonic wolf in Nordic mythology is not a hyena-shaped creature. It is a wolf. The archetype is a wolf, so we’re going to go back to the slender, archetypical wolf that is, I think, the inspiration for Tolkien. Listen if we were having a drink two years from now I would spill the beans, because I’m a pretty easy guy about spilling the beans, but I can’t in this instance I can’t because it’s three years from now… believe me, I am jumping up-and-down inside this fat body!”
The more he says, the more I like him!
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GDT is great at saying almost nothing, but in a very exciting and entertaining way… If he lived in Middle-earth, he would be Guillermo The Grey.
(Rhyming was accidental there)
- Jack M.
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i think these movies will be awesome. i really like the things he says about the wargs. tolkiens spirit, that’s definitely the most important thing here:)
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My faith in this guy grows steadier the more I read. I saw the job they did with LotR, and even though The Hobbit is my favorite book, I have a hard time believing they will ruin anything.. I think this guy will do a great job, though I WOULD have liked Peter Jackson to do it - but lurking behind the scenes, we probably got it safe.
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i think he will do a fine job with the hobbit movies.
The artistic style i think will change but probably not to far. after all alan lee and john howe are involved again but you cant deny GDT has a visual style. I think they will all marry well. We’ll see.
i’m most worried about what the 2nd movie will be. is it then conclusion to the hobbit or is it a tie in to the the first three? I think there is enough material in the hobbit for two movies especially with a verry little ad-libing with the white council and Dol Guldur. Other then that slight deviation i hope they dont go beyond what was in the book.
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I think the Hobbit films will be wonderous, smashing the twilight series in the ass, it could surpass Titanic in the box office!
By the way, I think Smaug going to look fantastic, it amazed me that many people are worried about Del Toro and Jackson, its a bloody match made in heaven. Del Toro is a master at monster, and Jackson made LOTR, do not worry freinds and fans, the Hobbit will go well,
but who will voice Smaug, that’s another topic, but I think it should be Christopher Lee.
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Lee Murrells Reply:
December 6th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
@Simon, I think Christopher Lee should, he’s said he’d like to. John Rhys Davies could probably do it well too.
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Taralynn Janzen Reply:
December 8th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
@Simon, I read the book and I thought Chris Lee would be perfect for the voice of Smaug.
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Jason Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
@Shimon, you mean Shawn Connery ish out of the questshion for voishe of Shmaug? He wash sho good in Dragon Heart. LOL
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Simon Reply:
December 31st, 2009 at 5:21 pm
@Jason, I hear you in saying Sean Connery should voice him, it would be great, but unfortunately, he’s now retired from acting.
My list of possible canditates would be:
Christopher Lee
Tom Waits
Alan Rickman
Jason Issacs
and…
Toby Stephens
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gemerald Reply:
January 27th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
I fervently hope that the voice chosen for Smaug is not well-known enough that I think of any other character than Smaug while listening to it.
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they are talking to Tom Waits to voice Smaug, which would be saaaweeet.
what i wanna know is how are they going to show what happened at Dol Goldur with out Lee as part of the white council? im assuming thats what they have Blanchett comming back for.
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Eldorion Reply:
December 17th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
@zac, They might have Lee do some scenes in London (or elsewhere in England). Otherwise I assume they’d just cast someone new as Saruman.
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Will be great, just keep the Wayans bros. and all rappers out of this movie. We do not need another Dungeons & Dragons film.
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Jason Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
@Keith, lets leave out the country singers too. I still haven’t seen one who can act. Flava Flave would be a good Gollum!
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what about Morgan Freeman as the voice for smaug
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They should have christoper lee as sauraman he played him perfectly he is the best actor for the general evil characters even though he is supposed to be good while in the white council
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please, a new, more subtle voice for smaug— sean connery should have played gandalf– i weep!—now too late–GDT will do great– peter jackson muddled two towers and king–two movies sound good, but what movie will smaug come in?
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Got to say. I think Mckellen was perfect for Gandalf. Connery just wouldn’t have worked. Too big of an ego. Even though I do love Connery. Someone mentioned Alan Rickman for Smaug, that would be fitting, I think.
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Alan Rickman is an excellent choice for Smaug. Remember the smoothness in his voice as the head terrorist in Die Hard and the sliminess of Snape? Smaug must be clever and evil, I like Rickman.
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