CS/SHH!: Of course, there's been a lot of talk about "The Hobbit" lately, but you have so many projects on the slate either in development or attached to. Are you ready to get involved something like that which is so big and time-consuming? Do you have other directors you want to line up to make these other movies?
GDT: Yeah, well I'm very conscious that doing "The Hobbit" demands four plus years of my life where I will not do anything else as a director, and as far as producing is concerned, I think we have a good year and a half of pre-production, so I can always be available but concentrating on "The Hobbit."
CS/SHH!: Do you think you'd get involved with Peter on the writing of that?
GDT: We are still talking about how to go, but I will be involved with the writing, yes.
CS/SHH!: What's the most daunting thing with taking on a project of that size besides the time involved?
GDT: There's the scope, and the learning curve, because the amount of things I've gotta learn. I fell in love with "The Hobbit" but I'm marrying an entire mythology. It's like meeting the family of a girl you're going to marry… you get them all, and I fell in love with "The Hobbit" and now I'm familiarizing myself with not only the trilogy--the trilogy I only finally read--but every single thing I can read that Tolkien generated about Middle Earth or about him I'm reading, and in terms of the visuals. In order for the two movies to seamlessly involve into the trilogy, I have to literally put myself through the biggest "making of" ever assembled. I'm going to watch all the dailies of "Fellowship" and I'm going to watch most of the dailies of "The Return of the King." I'll watch as much material as I possibly can take, the camera reports... everything. By the end of the second ("Hobbit") movie, you have to be able to have evolved towards "The Lord of the Rings" and feel that it's a complete continuation.
