The Hobbit in July 2007?

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Tim Burton has already been mentioned as one director who might have a very different take on TH. I think it would really be fascinating to consider what kind of TH film other directors might make.

Yes, Tim Burton's ability to combine a children's tale with just the right touch of darkness would seem fitting for such a project. The question is whether he would have sufficient enthusisam for the works of Tolkien to make it work. I have no idea what the answer to that is.

I can think of another director who would be ideal for the project, were he so inclined (and, again, I have no idea whether he would). He has already made a film in which a hero with whom children may identify goes off on a strange adventure with a bunch of dwarves. In another of his films, an everyman hero is drawn from a mundane existence into a fantasy world following an encounter with a mysterious man associated with pipes. Yet another of his films involves a protagonist renowned for embellishing the tales of his fantastical adventures. And his most recent film, set on the edge of the real world and faerie, explored the nature of fairy-tale in a most novel way.

He is a wonderful, quirky director, eminently capable of combining the fantastical and the comedic but his films also often have a dark side to them, and he is no stranger to special effects.

Can you guess to whom I refer?