Official: Guillermo del Toro to direct the Hobbit

Well the rumours have been finally proven true, with Guillermo del Toro, director of Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy, now officially signed on as the man trusted to bring The Hobbit to the big screen.

A prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit takes place 50 years prior and follows a much younger Bilbo Baggins on an adventure to recover treasure from the dragon Smaug.

With him for the journey is Gandalf the wizard, along with a stack of dwarves - the story also tells how he came into possession of a certain peculiar ring - the same one that put Frodo through so much trouble just a few decades later.

Speaking to TheOneRing.net about the project, del Toro said:

I met Peter (Jackson) a long time ago when we were planning on doing ‘Halo’ together, I really love how they have that setup in New Zealand, I call it ‘Hollywood the way God intended it’. New Zealand has all the technical advantages when doing a big movie and you are shooting it in paradise, both in terms of artistic freedom and commitment.

When ‘Halo’ didn’t happen, Peter and I stayed in contact on a regular basis, and last winter I started getting inklings that ‘The Hobbit’ may come this way, mainly from the studio. The first thing I said was that I would only be interested if Peter was involved and the (New Line Lawsuit) problem gets resolved. When that issue was resolved I got a call from Peter and we chatted, and it started from then, it was my Christmas gift!

Looking to move to New Zealand for the four years or so that it will take to make the films, del Toro hints that he wants to get all possible LOTR cast members and crew back for The Hobbit - this includes Andy Serkis reprising his role as Gollum, and Sir Ian Mckellen hopefully back as Gandalf. Even Ian Holm, who played Bilbo Baggins should be back in some form.

Speaking to MTV.com, del Toro said:

[Holm] certainly is the paragon we aspire to. He will be involved in some manner, I'm sure. But at his age ... it's too early to tell. We are just in the early stages. It's too early to make commitments of that sort. We prefer to let the screenplay and the way the character comes to life guide us in the casting

We can be pretty sure that we're getting back Andy, Ian, [composer] Howard Shore and [conceptual designer] John Howe. I am going to supplement the team of designers with other choices. People that come from the comic book worlds, not in the superhero sense, but the darker, more European type of comics. We're going to enhance the team of artists that conceptualized the first trilogy to create this earlier, more golden time and the way it starts to get tarnished.

Either way it sounds fantastic to me. The films are set for release around 2009/2010.