It's official, HELLBOY director Guillermo del Toro is to direct two LORD OF THE RINGS prequels for New Line Cinema and MGM. The Spanish helmer will tackle the projects which will be executive produced by LOTR writer/director Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, who announced the news on Thursday (April 24th).Variety reports that del Toro will move to New Zealand for four years to work on THE HOBBIT and its sequel, which will see New Line managing the project and overseeing development on the production. MGM will co-finance and co-produce with New Line, with Warner Brothers distributing domestically and MGM handling international distribution. Both films will be shot back to back, with the sequel dealing with the 60-year period between “The Hobbit” and “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
Del Toro is currently finishing up work on the HELLBOY sequel, HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY, which is housed over at Universal.