Its official! After 4+ months of talking and wasting precious time, it has been announced that Guillermo Del Toro will be directing The Hobbit. We heard last week at the New York Comic Con that we would hear something one way or another, and now we have the good news that he will be lending his creative imagination to Middle Earth.

According to Variety, del Toro will be moving to New Zealand for 4 years to work with Peter Jackson and company on filming the two Hobbit prequels back-to-back. It is expected that Ian McKellen and the rest of the required cast will return.

Things had been uncertain for the Hobbit films, with lawsuits over the rights and New Line Cinema folding and becoming part of Warner Bros. However, it seems things have been sorted out, or are in the process.

Peter Jackson was originally going to direct the first Tintin movie, however he gave that job to Steven Spielberg so that he could focus on The Hobbit. Jackson will now be directing the second movie in the Tintin trilogy.

No news on when filming will begin, however del toro has already said that he has spoke to WETA, along with designers and other crew members so pre-production in underway. He will be writing the script with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, who both wrote the Lord Of The Rings scripts.

This is officially the best news of the week! (in the movie world)

• Movies We Can Now Look Forward To As The Writers Strike Draws To A Close!
• Peter Jackson talks Lovely Bones, Tintin and The Hobbit
• Ian McKellen Will Be Back As Gandalf!
• Has Guillermo Del Toro Got One Ring To Rule Them All?
• Ian McKellen “couldn’t be happier” with The Hobbit script