Smaug is to iconic to change to much from the book. it would be like casting the geico geko as bilbo or gandalf

One of the sticking points with the rings movies was that they respected the original material. If he turns Smaug into some pan's Labyrinth type fey creature a lot of people will not forgive him. I would gladly count myself among them. Dragons are mythic but they are consistent in their appearance in the English tradition.

Remember how Smaug's underside was entirely jewel-encrusted? I believe that may be what he is referring to.

I am willing to give him some rope on this, as long as he doesn't give us the equivalent of the cloud version of Galactus from FF2.

I have a very bad feeling about this.

Why oh Why can they not just read the book and make him look the way he was described?

It could be alright as long as he doesn't make changes that are too drastic.

Why oh why can't YOU read the book and realize that, aside from the jeweled belly, the description of Smaug is pretty vague? The illo above depicts JRRs vision of the dragon, but I think folks would be pretty disappointed if he looked exactly like that. Personally I'm hoping that del Toro will come up with a striking, icon vision of Smaug and not settle for a generic storybook dragon

This makes me uncomfortable. I'm not a fan of his bizarre style creatures. To me the dragon should look similar to the one from Dragonheart. If the look and feel of the Hobbit doesn't have the look and feel of the LOTR, then I will not be seeing this movie. JRR Tolkein is the king. Respect his work and do it justice. I want to see JRR Tolkein's Hobbit, not Guillermo del Torro's Hobbit. The dude is wierd.

Peter Jackson had the right idea. Interpret Tolkien using the budget, time and resources available while creating a world that people can easily accept as something that even JRR would approve.

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are the foundation for modern fantasy, to re-imagine something to the point of it being alien would be to fail utterly.

Having said that, I loved Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy films. It would be fantastic to see this director continue to succeed while being faithful to the spirit of the Hobbit.

I have enough faith in Del Toro's artistic instincts to think he'll strike an interesting balance between what was described by Tolkien and... something original.

I think originality and creativity should be applauded and supported. Too many cookie-cutter versions of things are coming out and I for one would like to see something a bit different.

As none of us have seen del Toro's concept sketches of Smaug, we should reserve our judgements, take a deep breath, and chill.
Anyway, it has been a long time since I read The Hobbit, so excuse my ignorance in asking this question: as some have brought up, Smaug's belly was jewel-encrusted, which I take to denote not that his belly was made of jewels, but that his belly was covered in the jewels of the treasure horde he sat on, and as he lifted off the treasure, the jewels stuck to him. Is this a correct assessment?

Man whenever some producer gets his ego overinflated and tries to reimagine or change iconic characters, the results are NEVER good. Smaug should be a mean nasty, huge, scary violent predator. And not some weird critter that you can't even tell is a dragin. Uh Oh... Flashbacks to The Neverending Story.......... ARRGGHH

Check out the dragon in the trailer for the videogame DragonAge: Origins. Now THAT's a dragon!! I also like the designs from Reign of Fire. In my opinion, the Dragonheart dragon is far too cartoonish to be taken seriously. Heaven help us if we have to hear Sean Connery, Liam Neeson, Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, John Rhys-Davies, Rachel Weisz, or Keith David as the voice of Smaug...! Vermithrax Pejorative (from Dragonslayer) is quite good too, despite the dated effects. That having been said, nothing compares to Pete's Dragon! ;-)

No No NO! .....man! I hate it when directors try to get all artsy! still to the book! Ron Howard said he wanted to change from tradition of how dragons looked and we ended up with that two headed mutant elephant looking man thing in Willow. All we can pray for is Peter Jacksons intervention, dont let him go too crazy Peter!!!

to JustStoppingBy: Yes, Smaug's belly was covered w/ jewels that had become encrusted onto it while he was lying on his treasure hoard. It plays an important part in the plot because it makes him almost invulnerable to attack from below.

I'm curious to see what he comes up with, since del Toro said in an interview a year ago: "One of the best, one of the strongest landmarks that almost nobody can overcome is Dragonslayer. The design of the Vermithrax Pejorative is perhaps one of the most perfect creature designs ever made."

Thanks, doggybreath! It was very kind of you to answer. It will be very interesting to see if del Toro will incorporate that into his designs. Such a thing would look amazing on film. Can't wait for The Hobbit!

as long as liv tyler isn't in these films. She's the JarJar of lotr

I thought it was the scales on his armored underside that Smaug used for protection? Don't believe it was Jewels that were stuck to him.

to Ryan E: It was jewels. Read the book.

"...we ended up with that two headed mutant elephant looking man thing in Willow"

AHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH!!!!!

Well, we did not really know what Orcs, Trolls, or the Balrog looked like either. But they turned out OK. And this is not really new news. I read basically this same article many months ago. Lets just hope he does not have the teeth from the top photo!

Why is everyone so defensive already? I'm not too familiar with del Toro's work but I find the idea of something different to be good and intriquing. For one thing I can't stand the dragonheart/eragon/merlin style of dog-headed dragon. Too thick, too clumsy, not reptilian enough. The dragons I envisioned when I first started reading fantasy as a kid were sleek and long and bony with enormous teeth and with heads that looks somewhere between a thoroughbred horse and a crocodile, but with horns. Dragons are suposed to be SCARY. I can't wait too see what he's come up with. I mean, there's no way he can mess with the basics without screwing the plot. Smaug will fly, he will breath fire, have a tail and he will be sitting with heaps of treasure. Beyond that I say it's all fun. Maybe I'll like it and maybe I won't but it's far to early to be upset by the word "different".

Well if he ruins it at least we wont know til the end! I think he is going to add breasts.

Relax people... we have nothing to fear if Alan Lee and John Howe are on the design team. No one can visually render Tolkien's world better than these two guys.