While film director Guillermo del Toro has been busy publicizing Hellboy II (dig the exclusive ad-supported — that means free, homes — HB2 mobile content at MINE’s sister site Myxer.com), he recently revealed some details on his plans for his next project: The Hobbit.

In case you’ve been living in an Internet-less Shire for, like, ever, here’s the skinny on The Hobbit. This was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first “Middle Earth” fantasy novel, the world in which the Lord of The Rings trilogy took place. The Hobbit is where readers first met elves, magic rings, Gollum and a wizard named Gandalf. And since the Lord of The Rings movies rocked, why not adapt the original tome that started it all?

The Hobbit will be released as two consecutive films, with the second to tie in more closely to The Lord of The Rings, as filmed by Peter Jackson. But don’t get in line just yet, these movies are not expected until … 2011 and 2011.

“(T)he scope of those movies are staggering,” del Toro recently told a reporter. “I know it sounds like a leisured pre-production when you say a year-and-a-half or two, but it isn’t. We have to create a lot of new stuff for the first movie and we have to recreate a lot of the stuff they did on the trilogy they did for the second movie.”

Check out Ain’t It Cool News’ great interview for more info.

Mined by: C. Sawyer