Surprise! Guillermo del Toro Officially Directing "The Hobbit" Films!

I'm not quite sure what took so long, but Guillermo del Toro has finally announced today that he's on board to direct The Hobbit films. Just like The Lord of the Rings, this production looks to be epic -- so much so that del Toro will actually be moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work on the two films.

Not surprisingly, he'll be directing the films back-to-back. We've also learned that the second film will fill the gap between The Hobbit story and the first book of Lord of the Rings. This makes sense since I'm fairly certain that the plot of the book couldn't sustain two films.

Del Toro emerges victorious in a competition for this directing job with Spiderman auteur Sam Raimi. Personally, I'm glad that del Toro got the job. I wasn't the only one somewhat disappointed by many aspects of Spiderman 3, and the last thing I think Sam Raimi needs is an even more high-pressure and epic project. Raimi is also busy with a television fantasy project of his own, Wizard's First Rule. 

The only downside to this news is that we're losing del Toro as a potential director for the eventual Halo film. I was personally gunning for him, but since this project will take four years of work, there's no chance he'll get to do it.

Still, we get more Hobbits and more of the Tolkien-verse, and for that I'm grateful. With the films likely releasing nearly a decade from Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring, I think they're perfectly timed to coax audiences into revisiting one of the most well conceived cinematic worlds ever.

[Source: Variety]

[Picture Source: The Reeler]