Guillermo del Toro Signs Up for The Hobbit, Kinda Looks like One, Too

April 25, 2008

After months of basement-borne speculation and countless message board flame wars, director Guillermo del Toro has signed on to direct the big screen adaptation of The Hobbit and its planned sequel, Variety reports.

The Mexican filmmaker was announced as director Thursday by executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, New Line president Toby Emmerich, and Mary Parent, newly named chief of MGM’s Worldwide Motion Picture Group.

The Pan’s Labyrinth director will move to New Zealand and work with Jackson and his Weta production team over the next four years to bring J.R.R. Tolkien’s prequel to The Lord of the Rings to life. The films will be made back to back, with the sequel dealing with the 60-year period between The Hobbit and the first book of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Rings.

No start date has been set and a script hasn’t been written, but it’s believed filming will begin next year and that the original screenwriting team of Jackson, Walsh and Philippa Boyens will return to collaborate with del Toro. It’s also speculated the films will hit theaters in late 2011 and late 2012.

Also, while no casting has been announced, it’s rumoured that Sir Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood and other cast from the Rings trilogy would be willing to reprise their original roles if needed.

The Hobbit takes place 60 years before the beginning of the Lord of the Rings and follows Bilbo Baggins—Frodo’s uncle—on an adventure with Gandalf the Wizard through Middle Earth, and tells of how the hobbit takes the legendary Ring of Power from the misshapen creature Gollum. (Geekiest. Paragraph. Ever.)