Guillermo del Toro and The Hobbit

It is finally official that Guillermo del Toro will be directing “The Hobbit” and its sequel. This is great news for a lot of reasons. My favourite though is that the movie has a director that understands the hero’s journey. “The Hobbit” is subtitled “There and Back Again” for a reason. This passage is from the Wikipedia entry:

The Hobbit is set in a time “between the dawn of Faerie and the Dominion of Men,”^[4] and follows the quest of home-loving Bilbo Baggins (the titular “Hobbit”) to win his share of the treasure guarded by the dragon, Smaug. His journey takes him from light-hearted, rural surroundings and into darker, deeper territory,^[5] meeting various denizens of the Wilderland along the way. By accepting the disreputable, romantic, fey and adventurous side of his nature (the “Tookish” side) and utilizing both his wits and common sense during the quest, Bilbo develops a new level of maturity, competence and wisdom.^[6]

And he returns home with that “new level of maturity, competence and wisdom” which is the entire point of the hero’s journey.

Del Toro showed us in “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Devil’s Backbone” his deep understanding of the quest and the steps required in the fairy tale hero’s journey. I can’t wait for this classic to come to the screen. I haven’t even mentioned Del Toro’s exquisite colours, and textures.

What do you think about this news?