Del Toro on Hobbit, Smaug | Movie News

We're still a good two years away from being able to dip back into the Shire for THE HOBBIT, so understandably Guillermo Del Toro is keeping details under lock and key. That way he can try and blow our minds just a few months before on "Hobbit Day" in IMAX theaters. Unless someone tries that beforehand to some level of indifference.*cough*

The big guy still likes to talk about his own precious though, so the folks of Total Film managed to get a few tidbits on how the process is working out, and also let him address one of the fans' main concerns: pulling off Smaug the dragon.

"In The Hobbit, the creatures speak: Smaug has beautiful lines of dialogue; the Great Goblin has beautiful lines of dialogue; many creatures do. So we had to design them with a different approach because you are not just designing things that are scary." enthuses the man. "I think one of the designs I’m the proudest of is Smaug. Early in production I came up with a very strong idea that would separate Smaug from every other dragon ever made. The problem was implementing that idea. But I think we’ve nailed it'"

Del Toro goes on to explain how the writing process was made to respect the Tolkien structure of the story except for one small change: actually showing what happens with Gandalf when he disappears. 

To read the full interview, head OVER HERE. Thanks to the Collider bunch for the heads-up.

Extra Tidbit: When our own buddy Paul Tassi played "Cast This" with Bilbo a few weeks ago, the response from you guys was: 1. Martin Freeman (24%) 2. James McAvoy (13%) 3. Simon Pegg (7%). Nobody suggested my own choice, Tom Hollander. *snif*