I got my Total Film through the door today - it contains an interview with Guillermo del Toro who drops a few bits of info on the movies. Apologies if this is all old news, but hopefully it will be of interest to some people. I'll give a few key quotes:
Structure of the films
Quote:
"We are respecting the structure established by Professor Tolkien because the order of the adventures in the Hobbit is well known...But we will be integrating Gandalf's comings and goings because he does disappear in the book quite often."
So that looks like the Hobbit and the taking of Dol Goldur running parallel through both films.
Total Film: " Will the sequences involving Smaug and the spiders be genuinely scary?
Quote:
I think so. I hope so. At least that's the way we're approaching it...there is no way to have a dragon attack a town that's not scary...there is no way of maing giant spiders cocooning people so it would be gentle!"
Apparently the spiders will not be like Shelob as she was ground dwelling and they are canopy dwelling, and they will be more creatures of the shadow, whatever that means. And Smaug took about a year to design and is different to any dragon ever made before. (Which we have heard before I think.)
Quote:
We are not trying to make a quadrilogy or a pentology. We're trying to make two films that flow with those but that stand on their own completely. We want to avoid stuff that is not part of the DNA...but we don't want people to feel "We've seen this." Except where that familiarity is comforting, like Hobbiton or Rivendell."
He has already stated that Wargs will look different, but this suggests that a lot of things will be a different style to the previous films.
Finally some quotes suggesting the feel of the films:
Quote:
"I think the Hobbit is a bit more colourful. And a bit more operatic. And whimsical."
Operatic? Singing orcs anyone?
Quote:
"It has a little bit more flamboyance"
Just over two years until we see it ourselves.