You love creating your creatures and obviously The Hobbit offers some great opportunities. There’s the dragon Smaug, the spiders of Mirkwood, the Wargs, Beorn the bear-man…
The way I phrased it to Weta, I said we would keep the DNA in the same gene pool as the Rings trilogy, but that we would generate a different type of character. For example, in the trilogy most of the creatures are brutish or inarticulate.
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.
I also wanted some of the monsters in The Hobbit to be majestic.
I wanted the Wargs to have a certain beauty so that you don't have a massively clear definition: what is beautiful is good and what is ugly is not. Some of the monsters are absolutely gorgeous.
Smaug won’t be like the dragons in Reign Of Fire, say. Was it a big challenge to communicate his character?
I think one of the designs I’m the proudest of is Smaug. Obviously he took the longest.
It’s actually still active: we’re finishing his colour palette and a little bit of the texture. But the bulk of the design took about a year, solid. It’s because of the unique features of the dragon.
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.
Next: Spiders
Comments
Motley
Oct 29th 2009, 11:10
I AM SO EXCITED BY THIS - I JUST CAN'T WAIT! I love Mr Tolkien, Mr Del Toro and Mr Jackson and am really looking forward to seeing who has been cast as Bilbo, who is Smaug's voice, whether it has the warmth and humour of Tolkien and can effect like LOTR did. *squeeeee*
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Looseball
Nov 7th 2009, 16:35
Del Toro and Peter Jackson are two of the greatest filmmakers ever, I have tremendous faith they'll make an amazing film just like LOTR was and hold up to everything that he said in this interview. If I were going to cast Smaug, it would definitely have to be James Earl Jones.
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lonelymountain
Nov 7th 2009, 23:48
I do hope we get to see a bit of old Bombadil! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZbA6nMqV1g
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labrat
Nov 9th 2009, 4:04
I like the idea of a JEJones voice, but Smaug needs to be something no one has ever heard, and I hope it is not snake like (slitherin-like). But that JEJ quality. I don't know how the dragon will be able to talk without looking hooky. Same for Beorn and his animal talk, and his pets, I hope it doesn't turn into a child's cartoon. There are so many important things that need to be in the movie. Examples: Thorin's father, GFather and Dain, were involved in the goblin wars in Moria, and Thrain and Thror were bearers of the one of the Seven. Bolg was killed by them, but one of his relatives (son, brother?) was the Great Goblin. I also think that the One Ring left Gollum, not so much because of Bilbo, but because Thorin a ring heir, and Gandalf who bore one the Three, were nearby in the caves. How did the Trolls get Glamdring and Orcrist-were they in Moria or some goblin hoard for millenia? Also, I think that when Gandalf encountered friends from Rivendell during the Troll episode that these friend could have been Elrond's sons and maybe a very young Aragorn. And surely the Dwarves stayed at Bree during their trip to Rivendell and passed by Weathertop. Thorin's father was kidnapped in Mirkwood (Gloin was his companion, but was not kidnapped, luckily) and taken to Dol Guldur where he was tortured and his ring taken from him. Gandalf found him there, but was unable to save him, but Gandalf did learn about Sauron. And during Bilbo's travel year, the White Council drove Sauron out of the Dol Guldur, the same year the Ring was found by Bilbo. More as it occurs to me
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